Putting Up With Polite People
by Unrepentantly Human
Summary: Talking to Dragons from Shiara's perspective
1. Chapter 1

Hi. This is my first story, so while I do have several chapters written and will try to add them in a timely fashion, there might be delays from me learning how to actually add chapters.

That being said, on to actual story content. The first few chapters are a little darker than the initial chapters of Talking to Dragons, because I figured Shiara was probably going through a lot that day.

I would love to have someone go over my work, so if anyone has read the series recently and wants to act as Beta, that would be great. Otherwise I'll just post the story and rely on reviewers for feedback.

**Chapter 1**

It was rather amazing, considering how rare fire-witches are, how everyone in my town suddenly became experts on the subject as soon as I was born. As long as I can remember they had all worked energetically to educate me on their remarkable fire-witch expertise (gained from the university of passed gossip and that guy in the pub), going on and on about how "Fire-witches are incredibly powerful! Fire-witches can light a person on fire just by glaring at them, fire-witches can't be hurt by any other magic, fire-witches can make gigantic flame monsters. Fire-witches can control Elementals!" Hip Hip Flaming Hooray!

As the only actual fire-witch in the town, possibly the entire kingdom, I could, from personal experience, refute every single one of those claims. Fire-witches, as far as I could tell could not actually do anything, at least, not on purpose. Anything done by accident was another matter. When they were angry a fire-witch could just about burn down the town into smoldering ash. That was the one part of being a fire-witch that I had mastered, displaying the legendary temper that apparently goes along with the magical abilities.

As a result the people in my town had developed a new remarkable talent of avoiding me as much as possible and speaking to me even less often while still living in the same town. They generally stopped coming up to me to tell me what fire-witches were supposed to be able to do, instead they whispered it to themselves and to each other whenever I passed by or left a room. Apparently they thought part of being a fire-witch meant that I was supposed to be deaf. Their wisdom was truly astounding.

What was actually fairly impressive was how quickly the entire town could find reasons to be anywhere but near me after I had one of me firey little accidents. Honestly, you would think that after all the excitement over what I _should_ be able to do (and couldn't) they would be downright thrilled to see any demonstration of power, or at least wouldn't be so shocked and terrified at the idea of my hair bursting into flames when I got angry. I mean… I can understand how it would be sensible to be afraid of an angry fire-witch who couldn't control her magic, but the townsfolk never been too concerned about being sensible normally. Besides, having the whole town obviously avoiding me did not exactly encourage me to be even tempered. It's not like I asked for any of this.

All of which is to say that I should have known something was up when someone was anywhere near me the day after I reduced apothecary's front door to cinders. Not only did he stay near me he stood directly in my path on an entirely empty street so that I, accustomed as I am to people avoiding me like the plague, literally ran into him. He was a rather short, dumpy fellow with an obnoxiously long beard and green robes that were far too large and flowing to be practical. He actually rolled over and came up spluttering, muttering frantically until he laid his hands on the huge stick he was carrying. There stick pulsed faintly, as if it was sending out ripples through the air, slightly different much more powerful feeling than the one I got from the vaunted magic swords wandering heroes often showing-off. It was probably something old and valuable that just shouldn't be knocked in the dirt. Honestly, I was actually considering apologizing, then the little man sort of hopped back up and started in with the obnoxious "How dare you"s and "Watch where you're going"s. That sort of talk does not endear people to me and generally makes me forget about the whole apology concept.

"Watch where I'm going?" I could actually feel my hair start to spark "Do you not see all the bits of road you could have used to walk around me, avoid me. They are quite empty and ready for you to use."

"Mind your tongue little girl, do you have any idea what I am?"

" Not a clue, but I'm sure you're just itching to tell me." I started to brush past him and noticed another figure in suspiciously impractical robes (in blue this time) muttering and gesturing outside the bakery.

The little man attempted to draw himself up impressively, it looked like he was standing on his toes. "I am…" behind him on my left I could see yet another muttering gesturing, man clothed in dull grey, I could sense him now along with three other behind me. The little man glanced behind him and then moved as if his tiny bulk could block my view. I raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief. He looked put out and raised his staff and the pulsing turned into a thrum, sudden pressure pushed in from all directions and then it disappeared, leaving a faint sense of unexplainable unease, which was quickly joined by the perfectly explainable unease of realizing I was no longer on the road, nor was I in my town, or anywhere I knew. To add to that I was still surrounded by bearded men in ridiculously large robes, only there were more of them, about two dozen of them staring expectantly. The short one stood next to me looking unbearably smug, "As I was saying, I am a wizard, a member of the Ancient and venerated Society of Wizards. And you would do well not to cross us."

"And I" I snarled back "am a fire-witch. You would do well not to kidnap me" and gave him my best glare. The smug expression shriveled up and died on his face and he hopped backward like a toad.

"Yes, that was rather the point," an voice that was far too smooth to mean anything nice wound its way through the crowd and the other wizards grudgingly bowed out of the way for man with hard black eyes and one stripe of jet black through his grey-white beard. Obviously, he was their leader. "You will pardon my associate's attitude. He had a rather unpleasant encounter with a fire-witch some time ago. However I'm sure both you and he will see the necessity of putting personal matters to the side in the pursuit of the greater goal of knowledge. As the Head of the Society of Wizards I am here to offer you an opportunity to aide us in research of fire-witch powers, to our mutual benefit, I'm sure. You see your people are remarkably elusive and transitory which has made it difficult for anyone to collect information on them. When we heard about you, a fire-witch with such unique circumstances, and remarkably close by it was seen as a remarkable learning opportunity. While I can see why you would find your hasty removal distressing, we wished to reach you before you moved on, as so many of your people do."

"How generous of you" I muttered, rather loudly. Apparently wizards do not recognize sarcasm, or suggestions to stop monologuing.

"Especially considering how much we could help each other. We may not know much about fire-witches but from what we've been able to gather their magic is not so different from the magic in the Enchanted Forest, which we have had remarkable _experience_ dealing with recently. To help us understand your powers we can test your immunity and responses to spells of our crafting and thus be able to determine the extent of your powers. We might even be able to help you improve them and you would be enriching our overall body of fire-witch knowledge." And then he smiled, in what I'm positive he thought was a charming fashion, as if he'd just offered me some great gift.

"No"

His face paused like he couldn't process the idea of my turning him down. " Girl, I don't think you understand."

"No, no I understand: you and fire-witches don't get along and since you have no clue what you're up against, the moment you heard about a fire-witch who wouldn't blast you on sight you decided to experiment on her. I won't do it. I won't stand there and let you throw spells at me that I might or might not be immune enough to survive, just so I can hear people who don't know anything about fire-witches tell me what's wrong with me.

"You don't understand, we are aware of the extent of your problems. You couldn't 'blast us' if you wanted to and we outnumber you twenty to one. You do not have a choice." And he smiled. Smiled. This was my life, my power. Mine.

Fire burned within me spreading and uncurling, responding immediately to the fury that hummed through me like lightning, a part of me that had never left. It burned through the rage replacing it with something stronger, more pure, more right; until then I felt as though I blazed with energy. I could feel it all around me now, tiny sparks of it in the wizards and hollow echoes of it stuffed, entombed inside the branches they clung to so tightly.

I turned to the smiling Head Wizard and let the fire roar out onto the source of his power. A flash of white hot fire exploded up the length of the staff licked up several inches of the skunk like beard. The wizard bellowed and threw the staff away from him, slapping desperately at his beard with both hands. The staff hit the ground and crumpled into a pile of ash. The wizards stared in mute horror fascinated by the pile of ash, then they turned to me.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get her!" roared a blue robe

"What if she does that to the rest of us? Retreat!"

"Not if we all attack at once!"

The all powerful feeling of fire had not lasted, and even as I felt the spells inside the burnt staff joining into the energy of the blaze, common sense and terror began to return along with a few basic facts: I was still outnumbered twenty to one, all but one of those twenty still had their staffs loaded with magic, and I had no idea if I could do that again. With the way my luck was going I probably couldn't.

"No! Then we won't see the effects of the spells. The experimentation will be shot."

"She obviously has power, I thought we were using a powerless fire-witch"

"We should construct a shield. We should contain her."

"No! Blast her!"

I didn't like the direction the mass argument was going but the shouting and hand-waving seemed to be much too good of a distraction to pass up. The massed ranks were beginning to split, to make way for specific argument groups, ignoring me. When one wizard close to me shoved his way across the circle to more effectively scream in another wizard's face he opened up a nice little hole in the crowd. Since I'd been generously provided with both a distraction and an escape I took it. I ducked through the gap and ran for all I was worth. I had no idea where I was going but getting as far away from the wizards as quickly as possible had seemed like a very good idea at the time. I don't think they even noticed I was gone to be honest. At a certain point the faint shouting and cursing behind me did seem to increase, but that could have just been their argument heating up. I put on speed anyway and started dodging and weaving amongst the trees. I kept running even after I couldn't see the clearing, though I slowed slightly trying to move soundlessly and get my bearings.

The forest was steadily getting thicker and lusher as I went on and once I stopped to breathe I became aware of a sensation of magic : like a pressure or a very low constant rumble far deeper earthier then the wizards, a sensation that got stronger the further I went into the forest. It actually took me a few minutes of pondering what was going on before I realized where I was: Magic? Forest? Obviously the Enchanted Forest. I'd always wanted to go there. Adventurers who occasionally passed by our town had mentioned it before as somewhere full of magic , excitement and (most importantly) a place where several other fire-witches had been seen regularly. And now here I was, right on the edge of the forest.

It was full of magic which, the wizards had just said was sort of like mine. Surely, there'd be someone there who could help. It wasn't like I knew how to get home anyway, and my parents had always expected me to run away. Whenever I'd yelled about leaving my horrible dull village my mom hadn't tried to console me but instead gave me a considering look and murmured, well you are a fire-witch and I suppose there isn't too much that you couldn't defend yourself from. The faith had been touching in a way but it was also rather annoying that even she didn't appreciate that I couldn't control my powers, I wasn't even sure if I would be immune to enchantments much less be able to defend myself against any wolves or bears or whatever magic the forest had to offer.

I thought I felt wizard magic in the distance, and ducked behind a tree. Blast the danger. The wizards would probably have just as much trouble with the forest as I would, and I would certainly prefer they got as many bumps and bruises as possible. I glanced up at the tree I was hiding behind and then clambered up it as quietly as possible. I was too tired to run and the branches had gotten close enough that it should be possible to move from tree to tree fairly easily. Plus, if the stupid robes had been bad for running they would be impossible for climbing or anything else dealing with trees. Moving stealthily through trees had never been something I'd practiced but I managed, avoiding two other wizards who got close enough to use their magic and a group of adventurers that actually walked right underneath my tree. None of them so much as glanced up. I was safe, I thought and relaxed against the tree.

However I think it should be put in the Big Book Adventurers are Required to Read, that you should never, relax and feel safe in the middle of an adventure because it's just asking life to smack you upside the head with danger from another area. So inevitably the branch I was standing on (and not careful enough to pay attention to) broke, and my hands slipped off the branches that smacked grasping fingers, possibly slowing my descent and certainly guaranteeing me a number of nasty little scrapes and bruises.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, as the case may be, I landed half on top of the thickest, most prickly hedge in existence. I slid off and sat on the moss, panting and bruised, waiting for the wizards to come back. They had to have heard it. There was no way I fell quietly. They were going to be back any second. Time past and no one came, it was getting frustrating just sitting there so I got up and looked around.

The hedge was taller than I thought initially, tall enough and thick enough that they probably hadn't been able to see me. I turned and realized that I was standing in protective circle of thick, prickly hedge. It was perfect, even if the wizards had come back they wouldn't have been able to see me at all.

My good mood and belief that the hedge was benevolent lasted right up until the moment I tried to get out. The branches barely budged, and the moment I got one out of the way another two or three would spring into its place. The moment I let one branch go it smacked me in the face or hand and wound itself smugly back into its original spot. I tried dashing through it running as fast as I could and the branches just flexed and sent me hurtling back into the opposite wall. I tried climbing over it and found hand holds filled with prickers and heretofore unbreakable branches snapping under my hands. I got mad enough at the stupid cursed peace of misbegotten shrubbery that my hair lit up and I tried to burn a path clear but it wouldn't burn and in the end all I got out of it was a scratched up scalp.

So this was why the wizards hadn't come back, they hadn't needed to, they'd seen where I'd fallen and seen that I was trapped and simply gone to get the others. It was flaming perfect, they could just line up around the hedge and shoot their spells in at me, all they'd need were a few stools. And then I couldn't do a flaming thing to stop them. I sank to the ground, feeling miserable when my stomach rumbled. When I last eaten again? Breakfast? It seemed like an eternity ago now, when all I'd had to worry about was people avoiding me.

Now here I was in the Enchanted Forest, hungry, tired, bruised, and scared, waiting for wizards to come back and throw spells at me. I could feel tears forming and blinked them back furiously. I needed to get up and do something, if I were a real fire-witch I could get myself out of this mess. Of course if I were a real fire-witch I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place, the wizards would only try to experiment on some weak half-formed practically powerless fire-witch imposter.

Only me.

Then the tears just burst out, I crumbled and sobbed like a baby. I was being pathetic and I knew it but that just made me cry harder. I knew I should get up and do something but I didn't know what. I'd already tried everything I could think of and the evil bush just sat there trapping me in.

So I simply lay there crying and waiting for the wizards.


	2. Chapter 2

****Success! Second chapter achieved!

**Chapter 2**

I heard the footsteps and tried to pull myself together. Sure, I'd sunk down to a level of completely wretched despair: trapped, crying and most likely defenseless against the horde of wizards who wanted to experiment on me, but there was no way I was going to let them see me crying! There are limits to the humiliations that one fire-witch can endure. I would face them dry eyed and defiant and spit in their stupid bearded faces. On that lovely mental image I managed to swipe away the remaining tears and lever myself up to a somewhat sitting position, preparing to stand. And turning, saw someone there, already within the evil hedge trap.

He didn't look like a wizard, he was too young, only my age by my estimate, though he was tall enough to be older. It threw me off and instead of defiant threats and protest I found myself asking who he was and what he wanted. Which are probably the two stupidest questions ever invented. After all if someone is really up to no good they're not exactly about to honestly volunteer that information.

He claimed that he was some random passerby named Daystar who just happened to hear me crying and came to see if he could help. And I l snorted "You just walked through that hedge. Ha! I've been trying to get out of here all day." "It's not that easy. I bet you're a wizard."

True, he didn't have any of the requisite identifying wizard signs of : beard, ridiculous robes, staff, or arrogant attitude that my brief but intense experience on the subject had taught me were part of claiming the oh-so-highly exalted title of wizard. But that would be the perfect disguise for a real wizard, pretending to be some nice wandering hero type that I would just follow anywhere. Yeah, right.

He actually looked surprised, "I'm not a wizard" he replied automatically" then glanced back at the hedge and shrugged "Maybe it's easier to get out than it is to get it".

"That could be true" I wouldn't know, I hadn't gone through the hedge either way, I'd just sort of dropped in from above. It was a good answer. But that either meant he was a clever hero or a clever wizard, it didn't narrow eliminate either option. "You don't look _like_ a wizard." I couldn't really feel any magic on him but there was so much residual Enchanted Forest magic around I couldn't get a clear read. Maybe if I glared at him long enough he'd break down and tell me he was a wizard.

Whatever. If he could get in the hedge he should be able to get out. Right? "Can you get out again?" I asked. A hero (or a wizard pretending to be one) would normally accidentally fall into a magical trap, to prove his strength and save the lady or princess or fairy who would then offer him half her kingdom and her heart or some such nonsense. Not like I intended to do anything so ridiculous but at least I'd be out.

"I don't know." What kind of answer was that? "Well try!" He was supposed to at least try it, see if he could. Did I have to spell it out for him? Fine. "No, wait I'll stand next to you, so I can get out too. That way we'll both be rescued." There all wrapped up nicely, summary of Basic Hero Plan. Now, the eager hero could do whatever he did, get us out of the hedge, and I could be out of this in a second. "What are you waiting for?"

"I'm sorry , but I don't really think I need to be rescued. I was looking for a place to spend the night and this seems pretty safe. I'm not sure I want to leave yet. Besides, I don't know anything about you.

"Oh rats" I knew it had been too easy. I plopped myself down on the ground again. "I thought you might be a hero" but given your sensible, cautious answers that whole idea is out the door. "You can talk them into anything. Stupid creatures." You really can, quite a few of them had passed through my town on the way to the Enchanted Forest and the Mountains of Morning; they were travelers who knew about magic and I was desperate for information about fire-witches, so I got quite a bit of practice getting them to do what I wanted.

"Who are you?" the alleged Daystar asked, sounding thoroughly confused. Apparently in his little world people weren't normally as blunt about their opinions. "And why are you worried about wizards?"

"I suppose it won't matter if I tell you" I decided, after all if he was a wizard he knew all about it anyway. "They're chasing me. My name's Shiara."

"Wizards are chasing you? More than one?" He sounded impressed, and I almost grinned. "What did you do?"

I didn't really want to tell the whole story, since it mainly revolved around my problem with magic, which I didn't want to talk about, right now. "I am a fire-witch." It hadn't sounded like wizards and fire-witches were friends, so that would probably be a good enough explanation to someone who knew magic. Right?

"You're a fire-witch?" He looked me up and down and his eyebrows shot up, skeptically. Like somehow I didn't match up to what fire-witches were supposed to be. Maybe they were supposed to be taller as well as being able to use their powers maybe. Just because I was trapped in this stupid hedge, just because I couldn't use my powers, just because my life hadn't been the flaming, charmed paradise of power that everyone _knows_ fire-witches are supposed to have didn't mean I didn't know what I was. "I _am_ a fire-witch. I am!"

"I didn't say you weren't" he said quickly, trying to cover it up, but I was already on a roll. No he hadn't said anything. No one ever did. They never just came right out and asked what sort of fire-witch couldn't even regularly light a fire. They let the question hang in their eyes, like a silent torture until I got angry and made something burst into flame nearby. Then they all made up their minds that I just didn't like to use my magic unless it was for hurting people and avoided me like the plague. Or even worse, understood, and the question stayed changing to be edged with frightened pity. "You don't believe me but I am so a fire-witch. I am!" I was shouting but I didn't even notice. My entire town was terrified of me because of it and I'd been kidnapped because of it. And he questioned whether I was a fire-witch?! All the terror and rage of the morning came rushing back to me in a storm. Well maybe I couldn't control my power but I'd show him some of that lovely fire-witch temper, fire itself exploded in my veins, I'd…

"I believe you, I believe you" he backed up a few steps. "Uh, shouldn't you put your hair out?"

My hair had burst into flames again. The minute I decided that I didn't need power and that I do very well on my own it made itself know. And then I'd always feel that little bit of hope that I'd actually gotten it, that I knew what I was doing, which would be crushed next second. I could feel the hope welling up inside me. The rage vanished and I burst into tears.

Again.

Daystar shuffled around a bit then thrust a handkerchief, of all things, in my face. I mopped up the worst of it but all I wanted to do was disappear. "I'm sorry." He murmured quietly "I didn't mean to make you mad."

Sorry? How was him being sorry supposed to fix anything? Did sorry go back and fix anything? No. It wouldn't erase his doubts or stop me from looking like a weak idiot, just like it had never gone back and fixed any of the things I had ever burned. It was a stupid hollow phrase that didn't change anything that had happened. "Well you did." I snapped and threw the handkerchief.

He caught it neatly and stuffed it in his pocket thoughtlessly. I bet he didn't even realize I dried it for him, being a _fire-witch_ and all. "I said I was sorry" he insisted, as if that was supposed to help.

"I can't help having a temper, all fire-witches do." But I bet that didn't make him feel any better, than sorry made his words hurt less.

"Really? I've never met one before. I've met heroes and princes, but no fire-witches. Does your hair always do that when you get mad?" He was trying to change the subject, but it was the exact wrong thing to say. "

"No" For a real fire-witch it would, I'd tried to for hours to get it to but it didn't. Only randomly or whenever it was particularly inconvenient and could light something nearby on fire.

"Why are the wizards chasing you?" Daystar tried again sounding frantic to come up with a subject that wouldn't have me bursting into tears.

"I burned the Head Wizard's staff."

His jaw dropped and his eyes sort of bugged out, in a very satisfying way. If he was a wizard then he'd have let a truly incredible amount of acting talent go to waste. "You _burned _a _wizard's staff?"_

Apparently wizard's staffs aren't supposed to get burnt, that must have been a very nasty shock to the stupid skunk-striped brute. "He deserved it, too. But the rest of them got mad. So I ran away while they were arguing about what to do with me. "

"And you came to the Enchanted Forest? On purpose? Isn't that a little extreme? I mean, you could get, well, enchanted. Or killed, or something. This place is dangerous."

What part of running for my life had he not understood? It is not as though I'd had that many other options. "Having the whole Society of Wizards mad at you is just as bad,"I snapped back. That seemed to get him. He took a moment to think. "Why did you burn the Head Wizard's staff?"

"Because he was about to start testing spells on me because I was a fire-witch who couldn't properly use her powers enough to stop him," came to mind. I really didn't want to go there. Even if all evidence pointed to him not being a wizard, I'd had enough of being pitiable and pathetic for the day. But Daystar was expecting an answer. "I didn't like him" He looked like he wanted to ask something again but took the hint. "Would you mind if I sat down?" he asked instead "I've been doing a lot of walking today.

It didn't make much difference to me I nodded and scooted out of the way. Then I noticed the sword, there was something strange about it a wavering or humming. Not much but something, something magical. What was _he_ doing out here in what he'd assured me was a very dangerous forest with a weak magical blade? He hadn't been running for his life, if that wasn't some great quest it was idiotic foolhardiness. ""Are you sure you're not a hero or an apprentice hero or something?" I meant it as a joke, but he actually stopped to think about it. "I don't think I am," he said finally. "I'm not really sure."

"You're not sure? Don't you know who you are?" How could he not be sure? That was a pretty big defining trait for most of the heroes I'd met, they'd trained at it for years. You couldn't be secretly trained could you? You couldn't stumble onto a quest

"I know who I am," he said. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. Except finding out what I'm supposed to be doing."

I stared at him. "I don't believe it." After all the grief he'd given me about coming to the Enchanted Forest he was just wandering around it randomly? Really? He had to have some sort of reason. "Nobody comes to the Enchanted Forest without some kind of reason."

"What's yours, then?" He actually sounded somewhat snappish himself at that point. A sentiment I understood perfectly. Only I wasn't particularly keen on volunteering that information. It fell under the "tired of looking pitiable and pathetic" category. Besides I didn't wasn't it spread over the entire Forest that there was a powerless fire-witch wandering around. "None of your business!" And if we kept on this particular topic of discussion I was most likely going to accidentally set something on fire or burst out crying again, neither of which were pleasant options. "I want to leave, right now."

All right," the boy sat back, settling in comfortably "But I thought you couldn't get through the hedge."

I could actually feel my temper slipping away out of my control, and sure enough when I stamped my foot fire licked up my shoe. I had to get out of there. "I can't! Open it for me! Right now!"

"I don't want to open the hedge yet," Daystar said, disgustingly calm."I don't even know if I can. Besides, it could be dangerous. There are wolves in this forest. And it's getting dark; there could be nightshades out there already. That may not bother a fire-witch, but-"

Because fire witches are incredibly powerful, and can make gigantic flame monsters and can't be hurt by any other magic! Because I was supposed to have so much power I wasn't supposed to worry about any flaming thing. All my LIFE I'd been hearing this drivel! Didn't anyone care to look at what I actually could do and leave it at that? I can burn things accidentally when I'm angry and I have to try to hold that in because I always burn the wrong thing. And I can't get mad here because I'll most likely burn the idiot and he can't just shut up and make it easy he has to hit on that one stupid point I've been dealing with all my life! "I hate you!" I shouted, and I meant it.

For all of about twenty seconds, then I just felt awful. He didn't know I'd been hearing that all my life or that I couldn't do any of that stuff, because I hadn't told him. It wasn't his fault.

"Just because I don't want to get eaten by wolves or driven mad by a nightshade or something?" He sounded confused "What's wrong with that?"

I turned my back on him. Nothing, I wanted to say, what's wrong is that I don't want to either but I can probably do even less to stop it than you can. At least he had a magical sword, and didn't have a whole Society of Wizards after him. I wanted to be able to do magic but the only time I seemed to be able to do magic semi-consistently was when it would frighten people or when I didn't want to. Daystar himself had been nothing but nice to me and I'd yelled at him and almost set him on fire. I might do more than almost if I didn't keep my temper, and once that happened there would be the standard options of either terrified pity or decision that I'm evil. Either way he'd be terrified of me. After two demonstrations of my temper he probably already was.

Was this really my lot in life, a powerless danger to herself and others? Whose best future was to become some bitter old hermit who far enough from society that the only thing I'd scorch were the furry rodents who invaded my yard? Fate completely gypped me. Tears started running down my cheeks, but at least they weren't sobs. I could keep quiet, if ignored them, maybe the tears would just go away. And Daystar could just think I was sulking or something and leave.

A handkerchief appeared in front of my face again.

"I didn't mean to make you mad," he sounded tired but not particularly frightened "I just keep doing it by accident. It'd make things a lot easier for both of us if you would tell me what I'm doing wrong so I can stop."

I glanced up at him over the handkerchief, hardly daring to believe my eyes. He looked cautious and confused, but not scared. "You want to talk to me? You're not scared?" I lowered the handkerchief and stared at him. "You mean it!" People didn't normally stick around to ask why I got angry, they just ran away and avoided me. Probably the safer, saner option, to be honest, but I liked this form of insanity.

"Of course I mean it," he seemed even more confused and I wanted to laugh.

Just explain, what a wonderful idea. It would mean talking about my lack of powers and kidnapping and pathetic-ness, which killed any laughter stone dead, but this guy had just witnessed me crying three times in the last hour. I probably couldn't look too much worse anyway.

I sighed ""I guess I'd better tell you".


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

So, I told him, everything: my lack of powers, my accidents, my town's reaction, my kidnapping, and how sick I was of all of it. He was a good listener, making only the occasional comment or question to show that he understood but generally letting the story flow out. He actually seemed to understand how people telling you that you could all this amazing stuff when you really couldn't would be frustrating.

The one question he asked that really got to me was how the wizards found out where and what I was. They hadn't found me for years, and my town was pretty remote. It didn't seem the sort of thing that they'd just happen to hear about, not unless someone specifically brought it to their attention.

I must have looked angry or paranoid for a second thinking of all the people in town who might mention my name to the wizards (though why the wizards would listen to them is anyone's guess) because Daystar rushed on to ask what happened next. I didn't really mind because it was much more comforting to focus on how I'd defeated wizards than all the people who might want me kidnapped and/or experimented on. So I lost myself in describing the wizards and their ridiculous speeches.

"I said no," I explained. "And they said I didn't have any choice. That's when I burned the Head Wizard's staff."

"They don't sound like the wizards I've met," Daystar said, considering, then his face darkened. "Most of them, anyway."

I wondered about that, how much experience did he have with wizards? Maybe there was some sort of Society for Non-Evil Wizards which allowed in people without beards or ridiculous robes. Personally, I thought they should just change their title, call themselves something besides wizards.

"I don't care; I don't like wizards," I declared. Apparently, Daystar had also had experience with the sort of wizard I was used to because he agreed with me. Interesting. I'd ask him about that once I was finished, "Anyway, it turned out that the wizards had brought me to the edge of the Enchanted Forest. They said something about the magic in the forest and fire-witches' magic being related. That was before I got away. So I decided to see if there was somewhere in the forest I could find out how to use my magic. Only then I stumbled in here and I couldn't get out. I was afraid the wizards would catch up with me, and I was tired and hungry and mad. That's why I was crying."

He was quiet after that, quiet enough that I heard his stomach rumbling and felt mine grumble in response. He didn't seem inclined to break the silence so I did.

"What are you doing in the Enchanted Forest?"

"I don't know," he said

"How can you not know?" I demanded. "I told you why I came!" So he explained.

Apparently he'd grown up on this little isolated house on the edge of the Enchanted Forest with his mother, who was probably some sort of sorceress but he wasn't sure and she refused to clarify one way or the other. Whatever she was she seemed to know everything about the Enchanted Forest and Daystar spent most of his life soaking up that knowledge and learning generally how to deal magical creatures and places. Then one day a wizard showed up and made a fuss so Daystar's mother pointed at him and melted him with a single word. After that Daystar's mother had handed Daystar the sword he was currently wearing, told him not to even draw it unless it was necessary, sent him off into the Enchanted Forest, and disappeared along with the cottage. Now that was impressive.

"I think I want to meet your mother," I decided. "after I learn how to use my magic,". Do you think she'd be willing to teach me how to melt a wizard?"

He didn't know.

Which was a shame considering how useful such a spell would be for people with wizards chasing them. Unless she planned for him to do something else to defeat wizards. But what? Really, if Daystar's Mother was so good at heroes advice about what they were supposed to do she could have given _him_ more information. At least hinted at where he was supposed to be going, even just a direction. "I don't see how you can find out what you're supposed to be doing just by wandering about the Enchanted Forest," I told Daystar.

"Well, you're planning to wander around until you find out how to use your magic, aren't you?" he replied, with that same maddeningly reasonable tone. "I don't think I really see the difference."

"I know what I'm doing! That's the difference."

"If you knew very much about the Enchanted, you wouldn't have gotten trapped by this hedge." I scowled, it wasn't my fault, I hadn't had years of advice from a woman who knew the Enchanted Forest. Daystar had been studying for years and…he could teach me.

"Is it more dangerous to wander around the forest alone than with someone?"

"It depends," he said, as if mentally checking a list of books. "Two people can attract more attention than one, but sooner or later everyone in the Enchanted Forest runs into something dangerous. And when you do get into trouble, it's sort of nice to have someone around to help."

"Why don't we stay together, then?" I asked said. "After we get out of this stupid hedge, I mean. As long as neither of us knows exactly where we're supposed to be going, we might as well wander in the same direction."

He agreed. Which was great until I realized that since we were both being chased by wizards, we'd both increased the wizards chasing us. Unless he was being chased by any of the jerks who'd tried to experiment on me. So I asked him to describe the wizard his mother had melted, Antorell, in detail hoping he was part of the mob. No such luck. Oh, well it was only one more wizard after us.

"Why is this wizard after you anyway" I asked

Daystar looked thoughtful for a moment "I think he's after the sword more. It seems to be pretty important." Apparently a talking lizard he'd met had freaked out about it, calling it the Sword of the Sleeping King and telling him to follow it somehow. But when Daystar tried a spell to get more information the ground had shaken and created a mound for the sword and a voice had come out of nowhere and declared "All hail the Bearer of the Sword." After that the sword had started giving off tingles, which made following the lizard's advice a lot easier.

"The Sword of the Sleeping King," I'd never heard of it but it was an impressive sounding name "Well, it sounds important. Can you do that spell again? I'd like to watch; maybe I could figure it out." I was actually pretty good at sensing magic, I could give us an idea of what we were dealing with.

"I could do it, but I won't," Daystar said. "Once was enough."

"You scared or something?" One little earthquake and he gets upset. I thought about just grabbing the sword away from him.

"I'm not being scared, I'm being sensible," He replied. "That was no minor magic I set off. Are you trying to attract attention?"

Oh, right, wizards chasing us. "No, I suppose you're right. Will you let me see it, at least?"

"Sure, if you promise not to take it out of the sheath or say any spells at it or anything," Daystar said. Pah, as if my spells would work. He stood up and I could hear him fumbling around with the swordbelt. And continue fumbling. And continue fumbling. Eventually I got fed up and went over to help him. Which was pretty stupid actually, I didn't really know much about belts or getting them off _other_ people and I couldn't see anything in the dark. In the end I mostly succeeded in getting hit by Daystar's elbows. However, eventually the belt came off.

I stared at the sword, trying to concentrate. Magic swords have really flashy magic, different from magical creatures or wizard's staffs. I could actually sort of see, if I squinted right; nothing much, just flickers of light or a faint glow of color. But when I tried on Daystar's sword I got …nothing. The background rumbling of the Enchanted Forest increased uncomfortably. "I can't see anything," I growled finally

"There isn't much to see, besides, it's dark." Daystar said, totally missing the point "Maybe we should wait until tomorrow."

"I wanted to see it now. Oh, all right." I hated trying failed magic again. I handed it back, hilt first. But when Daystar reached out to take it he jerked his hand back.

"Watch out!" I said "You almost dropped it."

"It's tingling again"

"It is? Let me see." Maybe I could only feel magic when the sword was actually doing something. He handed the sword back again.

"I don't feel anything. Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." Daystar reached over and put his hand on the hilt, next mine. Suddenly there was this weird yanking feeling like someone had reached into me grabbed something and tugged it out slowly then allowed it to snap back. I made some sort of noise and dropped the sword. So did Daystar. We sat there looking at each other for a minute.

"What did it feel like to you?" Daystar asked.

"Like something pulling at me," that didn't really describe it at all. What was that sword that it could, reach inside you? "You can have it back;" I told him "I don't think I want to look at it anymore."

Daystar picked up the sword and put it back on, but he seemed just as not-eager to mess around with the sword as I was. We talked about it for a while, what the pulling and buzzing felt like and might have meant. We didn't really get anywhere with it, and the events of the day started to catch up with me (with both of us) and suddenly it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. So we went to sleep.

I woke up confused, about why I was sleeping outside and the events of the day came dribbling back into place. I lay there for a moment, being furious with the world, and then my stomach growled, and little things like the unfairness of life disappeared in the face of Hunger.

Daystar was waking up next to me and I was eager to get out of the cursed hedge. First there was no food inside, and second with a whole bunch of wizards after us I didn't want to stay in a thorny cage for any longer than I had to.

I rolled my eyes as I saw Daystar shuffling his feet, checking his sword""Will you quit fussing with that and come open this stupid hedge?" I demanded. He walked over and I braced myself for whatever major working he used to get us out of there.

"Excuse me," he said politely "I would like to thank you for keeping the wolves and things out all night, and I would very much appreciate it if you would let  
me through now." And he gave a little nod.

I stared at him. "That's the dumbest..." I began, but the bushes by  
rustling and parting for him. Daystar grinned at me and stepped through. I followed him, I didn't really care if it was stupid, I wanted out. But the moment I stepped near the hedge the branches snapped back into place, slapping me right back into the hedge prison. "Ow!"

"What happened?" Daystar yelled, from all the way on the other side of the shrubbery.

"What do you think happened? And you don't have to shout; I'm not that far away."

"I'm sorry." I really didn't care if he was sorry. I cared if I could get out! "Make it open up again!"

"I'll try," he didn't sound like he thought it'd do much good. "Excuse me, but you seem to have a friend of mine inside, and she can't get out. Will you please let her through?" The bushes rustled. "I'd really appreciate it if you would let her out," he continued "She's nicer than you think." More rustling. But the hedge didn't actually open.

"Well?" I asked, maybe he was doing something. I jumped a little to try to see over the hedge with no success.

Daystar sighed. 'They won't open up. I'm afraid you'll have to apologize."

"Apologize? To a bush?" That just went beyond ridiculous. If it cared so much about stupid feelings why didn't it just let me out when I was trapped and sobbing inside! II was supposed to apologize after it put me through _that!_ "I won't! I'll burn this hedge to cinders!" I started yanking branches aside. "I'll- Ow!" A branch snapped back into place, slashing me with thorns.

"I really think you'd better apologize," Daystar called "Otherwise you probably won't be able to get out until the wizards come."

That shut me up. Those really were my only two options: stay where I was and wait for my attackers to come get me, or apologize to a stupid bush and maybe get out. Life is just the worst sometimes.

"Oh, all right. I'm sorry I said you were a stupid hedge." I waited a beat, nothing happened. "Now will you please let me through?" I glared and the bushes slowly pulled apart. It had worked, I let out a sigh then hurried across. As soon as I set a foot outside the bushes whipped closed, I threw myself forward and fell. A piece of my tunic had gotten caught in the process.

"Stop that" I muttered, if the stupid plant could open and close at well it could cursed well let go of my tunic.

I hate to mention this," Daystar said, trying to help yank my tunic free, "but you really ought to be more polite."

"To lizards and bushes? Ha!" I had enough trouble being polite to humans, I couldn't even imagine being polite to every creature or thing I met. Where would it end? Plants and animals obviously weren't safe, was I supposed to start apologizing to rocks for stepping on them or the air for breathing it. I jerked my tunic and it came free, sending me sprawling on the ground. I glared at the hedge.

"I mean it," Daystar insisted "It only gets you into trouble when you're not."

"I'm a fire-witch, people are supposed to be polite to me." That was one of the few good parts about being a fire-witch: you didn't have to care about what anyone thought so you didn't have to tiptoe through all the confusing social complexities.

"I thought you didn't like having everyone scared of you," Daystar replied. He turned to thank the bush and therefore didn't see my mouth drop open.

I wanted to tell him that my lack of politeness was just part of who I was as a fire-witch and had nothing to do with people being scared of me. Except they were scared of me, mostly because I tended to set things on fire when I was angry. And they did tend to overlook things just to keep me from getting angry. Put like that …I sounded like a bullying spoiled brat.

My mouth just hung open.

Daystar continued. "If you act like that all the time, I don't think people would like you much even if you weren't a fire-witch. Good-bye." He turned and started walking away.

I just stood there trying to think. I didn't want to be a bullying brat I'd just always s acted that way. I hadn't really talked to anyone that much, what with the whole avoiding me, and the ones that did tended to be idiots who made me angry. I wasn't used to people wanting to talk to me and treating me like a normal person, so I didn't know how to respond. I glanced over at Daystar who was already making disappearing down the road. I really didn't want to be alone again.

"Wait!" I yelled running after him. He stopped, apparently expecting something "I-I'm sorry. I guess I'm not used to being nice to people."

"That could really get you in trouble in the Enchanted Forest," he replied.

I glanced back at the hedge, if that was what bushes could do to you I didn't even want to know what would have happened if I'd insulted a tree. "I guess you're right. Well, I'll try."

"All right. Let's find something to eat." That sounded like a good plan to me.

It took us nearly an hour to find a bush with any sort of berries, but that bush had half of them red and half blue. Daystar thought they might be enchanted and considering how wonky my magic was I didn't want to risk turning into something awful just because I ate a few berries. So we kept going. I decided I didn't like bushes in the Enchanted Forest.

I revised the opinion once we actually found a plain old blackberry bush, it looked beautiful and delicious. They weren't particularly filling so we nearly picked the bush clean filling up our bellies. Daystar saved a few of them in one of his mysteriously appearing handkerchiefs and we ate them along the way.

I meant to talk to him about the Enchanted Forest, but then he mentioned some of the enchantments he'd seen while living at the edge of the forest and the conversation quickly moved off topic. Apparently Daystar really hadn't gotten out much because he found my stories about my dull little town fascinating. Personally I'd have preferred actually being taught magic like he had to hanging around the kids in my village. However, in an effort to be… polite, I restrained myself.

The day started warming up and the combination of the heat and the unusual amounts of talking had made us both thirsty. Fortunately about that time we ran across a little stream with clear delicious looking water. I knelt on the bank and actually started reaching out for water when Daystar stopped me.

"Wait a minute!" I looked up at him "You shouldn't just drink that. You could turn into a rabbit, or lose your memory, or disappear, or something."

It made sense, everything in the Enchanted Forest seemed to be potentially dangerous but my mouth was as dry and dusty as old boot leather. "I don't care," I decided. "I'm thirsty." Maybe my immunity to magic would save me or maybe I'd turn into a rabbit but it would be a not-thirsty rabbit which I viewed as an improvement.

"But what if…Watch out!" Daystar jerked me backwards in time to watch an enormous swirl of muddy water roar down the stream, ripping away anything in its path. I fell back wards in my haste to get away and then righted myself. The stream didn't look so inviting anymore, I couldn't see the bottom and there was an unpleasant hum of unwelcome magic stirring up the waters into an angry froth. It was not something I'd have wanted to get swept away in.

I glanced over at Daystar. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I guess we'll have to go back-" He stopped and I turned to see that the furious water had cut us off on both sides and was working to claim more of our little island.

Apparently someone didn't like us. I scanned the forest trying to feel for someone using magic, there was something familiar about the sensation of this magic. There was one of those sinister chuckles and I turned to see the blue robed wizard who'd lead the charge to attack me the day before. "Daystar! Over there!" I grabbed him and pointed him towards the wizard. The black bearded git seemed to find that amusing "Well, little fire-witch, I seem to have caught you again," he said.

"You leave me alone!" I shouted. "Or I'll bum your staff, too." It wasn't the best insult but they did seem really attached to those staffs.

The wizard just chuckled again. "Oh, I don't think so," he said. "I've taken precautions, you see." He waved at the river and smiled nastily. "Or weren't you aware that fire-magic won't cross water?"

I was ready to test that theory but Daystar interrupted. "Magic may not cross water, but we can," he turned "Come on, Shiara It can't be very deep."

"Where did you find the hero?" the wizard asked. I glared, trying to reach for my fire magic so I could set his beard on fire. He laughed. Maybe I could get his eyebrows too. "I should give him something to do, don't you think, a monster, perhaps? Heroes like monsters." He waved his staff at us and I felt a surge of magic leap into the water near up. I backed up as the water began to stretch and solidify, morphing rapidly into a giant watery snake's head. It caught sight of Daystar and lunged.

"BACK OFF YOU STUPID WATER WORM!"

The fire rushed up into my grasp, ready to devour and I mentally hurled it at the snake's head. Steam burst from near its eye but the creature didn't even seem to notice. Daystar barely dodged out of the way and drew his sword as he came up. The wizard laughed again.

"I'm afraid that won't work very well, young lady," he said. "You'd have to boil the whole stream away to get rid of my monster, and I don't think you can. Pity, isn't it? Be patient; you'll have your turn in another minute, and then the Head Wizard will owe me a favor."

Then I'd burn them both I decided. My magic had already crossed water to hit the snake and there was no way this stick wielding fool was going to hand me over to skunk-beard. Then things happened very fast. The snake lunged at Daystar again and before I had a chance to help, Daystar stabbed it. There was a humming sound a buzzing of indefinable magic down the blade, into the snake and then the mass of wrong feeling in the water, the spells shaping the snake, exploded outwards, as if something had ripped them apart from the inside. Water was everywhere.

I looked back to the wizard, he was staring at something on the ground he looked back up at me. "Still want to try to take us on!" I yelled. I had no clue what had just happened the wizard looked scared and that was a good thing. He glanced at Daystar, the color drained from his face and he vanished.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The stream had shrunk back to its normal limits at about the same time as the water snake blowing up so we didn't have much trouble getting back to relatively dry land. By unspoken agreement we both headed over to look at what the wizard had left behind. It turned out to be his staff, or pieces of it, somehow Daystar's sword had traced the magic back to the source and sliced it into three neat little pieces. I glanced over at him and found him looking at me, bemusedly.

"That's two wizard's staffs you've broken," he said. "They're really going to be after you now."

"I didn't break it. You did." Or his sword had. Hadn't it?

"I did not," he insisted. We stared at each other for a minute

"If neither of us broke it," I asked finally, "who did?"

"Me," we glanced up, there was a little guy perched in the tree almost blending in with the leaves. He looked to be maybe as tall as my knee so he must have enjoyed being higher than everyone else.

"I think you mean 'I,'" Daystar said

"I shouldn't wonder if you're right," the little man mused. "Does it matter?"

Can you get down from that tree?" I asked, getting annoyed "You're giving me a crick in my neck."

He seemed to notice me for the first time and immediately turned back to Daystar. "Introduce me to your charming companion." I thought that was pushing it a little and wondered if he was making fun of me.

Daystar apparently didn't see anything odd about it though. "Oh, excuse me," he said then introduced us and thanked the little man, for taking care of the wizard.

You're welcome," the man still in the tree replied "I've never cared much for wizards. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to do anything permanent to them. This one will be back in a day or two."

"If there is anything we can do for you in return, I would like to hear what it is," Daystar continued. That was very careful statement I thought and I glanced at the little, pointy eared man more sharply. I decided I'd let Daystar handle the polite talk.

He was staring at Daystar's sword, his black eyes glinting oddly. "Consider the debt canceled," he said with what suddenly sounded like forced politeness.

"Thank you, you did a very neat job." Daystar said looking down at the pieces on the ground.

"You may have the staff, if you want it," little tree-man said, waving at the pieces.

"What good is a busted wizard's staff?" I asked. I'd been trying to keep quiet but that was just ridiculous. "You can't do anything with it."

"Nonsense," the tree-man insisted. "Wizard's staffs are just as powerful in pieces as they are whole, and they're fairly easy to put back together. So please, take it with you."

His insistence was really starting to put me off. If it was so useful why did he want to get rid of it?

"Are you sure you don't want it?" Daystar asked

"What would an elf do with a wizard's staff? If you don't take it, I'll just have to get rid of it somewhere." Well what were we supposed to do with it?

"Thank you for the suggestion," Daystar said, finally. "We'll think about it."

"Do," the elf said. His eyes glinted "Perhaps I'll see you later. Good-bye." And he disappeared. Maybe it was just me but there seemed to be somewhat of an ominous tone to those words.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"I don't know about that elf." So that's what that little guy was, I thought. "I think something funny is going on; he was trying too hard to get us to take that staff."

"Well, we have to do something with it," we couldn't leave it there.

"Why?" Daystar asked. "We didn't break it. And I don't want to mess with a wizard's staff, even a broken one." He had a point, wizards were pretty nasty, but if the wizard wasn't there what harm could it do? (It should be noted that the phrase "what harm could it do" is also a phrase that should be banned in the Big Book Adventurers are Required to Read). I was wondering whether I should try grabbing one or if it would react poorly to my, admittedly rather latent, magic, when Daystar started mumbling. I heard my name in the mix and turned on him.

"What? What are you mumbling about?"

"I need something to dry off my sword" he explained "Everything I have is soaked. But you're just as wet as I am…." He trailed off staring at my noticeably drier appearance.

"Fire-witches dry off fast." I grinned. It's part of the whole fire thing: slightly higher body temperatures and a tendency to get rid of water quickly come as bonuses.

Daystar took it in stride. "Then can you give me something to clean my sword? Everything I have is soaked."

"What does that have to do with the wizard's staff?" I asked. Whatever, at least it was something I could do. " Oh, give it here; I'll fix it." I didn't really want to touch the sword again after the weirdness of last time but I owed Daystar a favor, or two.

"That's all right, I'll do it," he said. "It's my job. All I need is something dry to wipe it with."

I glared at him, not all of us carried around a random supply of handkerchiefs. "All I have is my tunic, and I am not going to take it off just so you can dry your stupid sword! If you won't give it to me, it can rust."

He looked up at me suddenly and his face went through several interesting shades of red. "I, um, I'm sorry, I didn't mean... I mean, I didn't think..."

Obviously. It was actually pretty funny to see him flustered but I was pretty sure that it would get old quickly. "Oh, shut up and give me the sword." I muttered.

He held it out wordlessly. I took it rather cautiously, but nothing odd happened, it still emitted its strange vibrations of magic but it didn't burst out with explosions or anything. So that was a positive. I moved to hand the sword back to Daystar and found him drinking from the stream. It felt a little bit hypocritical after he'd freaked out earlier, but honestly I couldn't blame him. After battling a giant snake creature, enchanted water didn't sound that scary. Besides I was parched. I watched Daystar for a moment, to see if he would turn into a rabbit or anything, when nothing happened I got down and tried to drink.

This was where the whole drying off quickly, water resistant thing made my life more difficult, most of the water ran out before I could get it to my mouth; however I was thirsty, so I kept up with it gamely. It was worth it, the water tasted heavenly: cool and clear, with a vague fruity flavor. I drank until my annoyance outweighed my thirst, then I sat up and turned my attention back to the current problem.

"Now, what are we going to do about that wizard's staff?" I asked.

I didn't want to take it and neither did Daystar, the overly-persistent elf had made us both think that was a very bad idea. However I didn't want to leave it lying around either, that wizard was after me and if I could slow him down in any way I wanted to do it. After a good deal of arguing, I managed to convince Daystar to hide the pieces. Even so he wasn't exactly eager to touch them.

I rolled my eyes and picked up the piece closest to me. The ground moss underneath had all died, leaving a brown silhouette of the piece of staff in the otherwise lush carpet of green. And in that little patch of deadness there was, silence, the normal thrumming of magic was gone. I glanced at the staff. That couldn't be normal.

"Daystar! Come see!" I called, waving to get his attention.

"You really shouldn't do that," he complained "You might set off a spell or something. This used to be a wizard's staff, remember? We ought to at least try to be careful."

I would have rolled my eyes again if I hadn't been so excited. "Yes, but look what it did," I replied, pointing at where the staff piece had been. That got Daystar's attention, he bent down and reached out, the dead moss crumbling to powder under his hands.

"But this is the Enchanted Forest," he muttered "You aren't supposed to be able to do things like this."

"Well, this wizard's staff did," I looked at the staff bit again "I bet it'll do it again, too." I put the staff bit on the ground and felt a vague fission jolt through the wood. I jerked it up as quickly as I could, and sure enough the moss had turned brown, dead, and devoid of magic.

Daystar stared. "I don't like this," he said quietly, then thought for a moment "I wonder if all wizard's staffs do that."

"I don't know about other staffs, but we can check the other pieces of this one," and I headed off to check. I grabbed the second peace and sure enough there was brown underneath. I put it down again, just to check and found it had the same reaction as the last one: a fission of magic and dead moss.

"This one's the same," I called "What about yours?"

"Just a minute," Then there a sound like the clap of thunder and vicious oily clouds of energy burst into being, I whirled around in time to see Daystar collapse to the ground. I raced over and nearly tripped over the last piece of the staff, flaming away merrily. I nearly stomped it out, out of instinct, then glanced over at Daystar and thought better of it. Instead I leapt over it, with the vague hope that it would reduce itself to cinders, and ran over to Daystar.

He was breathing, but definitely unconscious and unresponsive, I ran over to the stream for water, because that's what I'd always seen people do when people passed out. It took a few tries to get the enough water over to him and a couple splashes before he gave any response. I was terrified that I'd killed what was probably my first actual friend with my curiosity and stubbornness and then he'd started blinking and twitching.

"You can stop now," he said, weakly. "I'm wet enough already."

I shook my head, and felt a weight I hadn't noticed lift a little. "Are you all right? I mean, you're not enchanted or anything, are you?"

Probably a stupid question but Daystar considered it honestly. "I don't think so," he decided finally "but if I am, we'll find out pretty soon." He sat up and leaned against the tree the wizard had leaned on. "What happened?"

"How should I know? One minute you were standing there with that sword, and then there was some kind of explosion and when I turned around you were lying on the ground and that piece of the wizard's staff was over there, burning."

I glanced over at the piece and noticed that it had been reduced to vaguely glowing ashes. "I don't think anyone's going to put that staff back together again; it was the middle piece." I'd gotten what I wanted but Daystar was right, we should have been more cautious. I felt my expression "But I think you were right about that elf." He'd really wanted us to pick up the pieces, he must have known…

"Where's my sword?" Daystar interrupted my thoughts, sounding panicked.

He'd almost been killed and he was worried about his sword. Of course. "In your hand, "I told him "You wouldn't let go of it."

He relaxed ever so slightly, then moved to shift the sword and froze at the sight of his other hand. It had been burned, blackened and shrunken by the explosion of the staff. He turned to me and I started babbling. "Daystar, I didn't notice, I was so worried about waking you up I didn't even see-"

Inside my mind was screaming. It was my fault I shouldn't have insisted we hide the staff pieces, we shouldn't have even touched them. If we'd known anything about wizards' staffs we should have known…that elf he had known about wizards' staff and he'd insisted that we take the staff with us. He had to have known what would happen he'd wanted to get Daystar hurt. The world suddenly became very clear and very cold. First priority was Daystar's hand.

"I'm going to find you somebody who can fix this," I told him. "And then I'm going to find that stupid elf and make him sorry he ever mentioned that wizard's staff."

"It doesn't really hurt or anything," Daystar offered, apparently trying to be positive.

"That's bad, I know a little about burns, from the times when I…" accidentally set other people on fire, I thought but decided now wasn't the best time to mention it. " Are you sure you can't feel anything?"

"Not in my hand" he winced, meaning the rest of him was probably hurting like the blazes. "And I'd really rather not talk about it. It might help me not notice the way my arm feels."

"Well, let me look at it, then, and I won't have to ask questions," I decided. He held out his hand and looked away.

I didn't blame him, the hand was shrunken and twisted oddly, though I didn't see any bones, which was a small relief. Nothing I'd ever done had ever been this severe it had always been red and angry looking with blisters and oozing; this hand looked like it had just given up and died. I remembered a young duke who'd come to see the town's prince, about his leg which had burned badly by dragon's fire when rescuing his soon-to-be-wife (a younger princess whose older sisters' fiancées had already inherited both halves of their father's kingdom). They'd had to chop off his entire leg.

"You can put it down now." I told Daystar. "It's bad, I don't know what to do for it, either. We have to find help, and pretty soon, too," before it got infected. "There has to be someone in this forest who knows something about healing! Can you walk?"

"My legs are all right" he insisted, then swayed and fell down when he tried to stand up. He shook his head slowly then set his jaw and levered himself up using the sword. For a moment, he stood there, leaning heavily on the sword and panting a little. I wanted to argue, to insist that he at least let me help him. But I'm probably the world's expert on stubbornness. We had to get him to someone who could help him as quickly as possible and it wasn't worth the time it would take to argue with him.

So instead I picked a direction, more or less at random, and concentrated on trying to sense magic that felt like one of the old healer women who'd passed through my town. I kept glancing back at Daystar, who seemed to be using all his concentration and energy just to be able to walk straight. The second time he almost collapsed in the middle of the road, I ducked under his arm and tried to hold him up as much as I could. He made a vague sound of protest but was too weak to put much effort into it.

Mostly I had to worry about keeping out of the way of the sword, he still had a death grip on for all that his arm was drooping under the weight. It sliced against me occasionally, making little tears in my much abused tunic.

When it finally nicked me on the arm, I stopped. Daystar more or less collapsed on the ground beside me. "Daystar, are you sure you can't put that sword away yet?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm "It gets in the way a lot."

"The sheath is still wet," he slurred.

"Well, can we at least put the sheath in the sun so it'll dry faster?" and give you a chance to recover before you pass out, I added mentally.

He shook his head. "We can't do that," he said, muzzily. "The cat has the only patch of sun around here."

"What cat?" If he'd started seeing things we were both in trouble. I'd started to pick up on a faint magic that had felt vaguely helpful but that hadn't been close by and I didn't know how far I could carry him.

"What cat?"

"That one." He raised one shaking finger and pointed. Sure enough there was a large black-and-white cat sitting in a patch of sunlight. It stared at me disdainfully, as if I was a very stupid creature for not noticing him immediately and it wished to convey its royal displeasure. It then stood up, twitched the tip of its tail three times, turned around, and started walking away. After a minute, it stopped and looked back over its shoulder, as if to say "well, are you coming."

I jumped up and started dragging Daystar to his feet. "Come on, Daystar. We're going to follow the cat. I think somebody sent it."

"That doesn't make sense," he muttered, but he wasn't in any shape to argue. The cat was still waited long enough for us to get somewhat situated, but as soon as we started following it darted ahead.

I stopped trying to sense for magic, since anyone who could get a cat to go fetch guests had to be more than human. Instead I concentrated on trying to figure out where we were going and trying to keep Daystar moving.

The cat took us on what seemed to be the most meandering path it could find, past a bronze gate to nowhere, through streams, twice around a bright purple tree. Then all the trees thinned out to reveal an extremely tidy-looking grey house with a wide porch, a red roof, and a sign over the door that proclaimed in clear black letters (edged with gold) NONE OF THIS NONSENSE,PLEASE. Well that was encouraging. The cat had stopped, so I did as well. Daystar, took a moment to notice.

"I was about ready for another rest," he mumbled. "Is the cat still around?"

"This isn't a rest," I replied, jostling him a bit. "We're here."

The cat jumped up to the porch and scratched at the door and after a moment it opened enough to allow him inside. Our guide had just gone inside. Personally I considered that invitation enough, especially since I was barely holding up a friend who was more than halfway to collapsing. However, since he wasn't unconscious yet I figured Daystar would make a fuss about how we should be polite and wait for an explicit invitation inside. I was debating whether I had the strength left to haul him bodily inside when the witch who owned the house stepped out onto the porch.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

That isn't to be rude, she really was a witch. Probably not most people's first idea of a witch, she was young, wartless, straight-backed, and ginger-haired although she did have the required lose black robes, glasses, and cats. But I could feel the magic radiating off of her, in neat, contained patterns, with answering echoes throughout the little house.

"It's about time you got here," she said.

"Do you know anything about healing?" I asked

"Of course I do, or I wouldn't have sent Quiz out to get you," said the witch, sensibly.

"Quiz?" I was losing the thread of the conversation.

"The cat. Do you plan to stand there all day? I certainly can't do anything for you while you're outside." I shook my head, it didn't really matter, and dragged myself and the barely-conscious Daystar inside.

The witch led us into a large kitchen/study absolutely full of cats and shooed two of the felines off some chairs near the table. Daystar collapsed into the nearest chair. I managed a few more steps before collapsing into the one next to him. We both slumped bonelessly, thrilled to simply be off our feet, though Daystar retained his firm grip on his odd sword, which was just ridiculous.

"You can put that stupid sword down now." I told him "No one's going to take it." And it wasn't like anything could be lost in a house as neat as this one, unless it was under a cat and it seemed to me that they'd have more sense than to go near that sword.

Daystar rolled his head over and stared blankly at me for a moment. "No." he said and closed his eyes.

"Sword?" said the witch. "Oh, that sword. It's quite proper of you to keep it for now. If I may see your hand?" She came over and examined Daystar's right arm for a moment or so, with vague pings of magic and sharp eyes. She nodded.

"Just as I thought. This could have been very bad, but you got here in plenty of time." She went over to a cupboard by the, took out a piece of what looked like dried hellebore, and tied it around the blackened flesh of his arm, muttering as she did so.

The magic seemed benign and she'd said she was a healer but after yesterday I felt twitchy and suspicious. I sat to the side, half-ready to jump on the woman and beat her awa y from my injured companion. The chant ended, and Daystar stirred, glancing around.

"That should take care of things for the time being," she said, "and in a little while I can take care of the magic. Then we can pack the burns with salve. Would you like some cider while you wait?"

I frowned, the skin was still blackened and ugly "Can't you do anything right away?"

"I have done something," the woman said. She set three distinctly mismatched mugs on the table, and bustled about preparing cider of all things. "Several things, in fact. I sent Quiz out to bring you here, and I have stopped the damage from spreading. I have also made gingerbread, which should finish baking any minute now."

"Gingerbread?" I blinked. What did gingerbread have to do with anything? There were more important things going on! "Daystar is hurt! Why are you baking gingerbread?"

"For you to eat," the witch said easily. "Why, were you expecting me to make a house out of it?"

"Well, no, but-" I was starting to think that the hours of walking had messed with my brains" Oh, never mind the gingerbread! How did you know to send a cat out for us? Who are you, anyway?"

"I know a lot of things. I'm a witch. My name is Morwen. And you?"

I stared at her. Daystar, of course leapt in with properly polite, albeit somewhat slurred introductions.

I made another stab at actually getting some answers. If she didn't want to talk about herself, she could at least tell us what in the world she was doing to Daystar. Or what she wasn't doing. "Why do we have to wait?" I insisted.

"Mixing magic and cooking is never a good idea," Morwen said. "Don't worry, the gingerbread won't take much longer." She walked around the table pouring cider, as if it was the most logical response in the world. "There!" she said as she set the jug down. "Help yourselves. I'll be back in a minute."

But. But. Why cook in the first place? Why not heal him now? We'd finally met someone who could actually help him why didn't she just help him? Daystar was in pain, he'd been dealing with it for miles! Miles where he'd had to walk and I couldn't do anything except wait for him to pass out! And his hand had just kept getting worse…

And then all the panic and helpless frustration and self-loathing that I'd been holding in since I'd seen Daystar's hand reached up an grabbed me by the throat. I choked back a sob, managing to turn it into a vague sniffle and let my hair hang over my face.

"What's wrong?" Daystar asked.

"It's all my f-fault!" My voice, I was horrified to hear was bordering on a wail. "If you hadn't been with me, you wouldn't have run into that wizard at all, and if I hadn't insisted on hiding that stupid staff, your hand wouldn't have gotten . . ." I couldn't finish. Blown up, burned to bits, rendered completely unusable. My one almost-friend, or at least someone who was nice to me and as hard as I tried to keep my cool, he still ended up getting burned because of me.

Daystar sighed. "If you want my handkerchief, you'll have to get it out yourself," he said. "And it's probably still pretty wet. But you can have it if you want it."

And he was still trying to be nice and polite even after all that. It really did make me want to cry.

At that moment Morwen returned with her hands full of plants, a black and green blob in my vision.

"That is quite enough of that," she said, pressing a large black handkerchief into my hands. "It does nothing constructive, it makes everyone else feel bad, and it is extremely self-indulgent. Drink your cider. You'll feel much better." And one of the cats yowled seemingly, in agreement.

I wanted to say something rude and tell both of them about how being kidnapped and chased by wizards did tend to give a certain amount of reason for crying, but I actually agreed with Morwen (and the cat). So instead I blew my nose, feeling rather sheepish, and ate my gingerbread. I detested crying and decided that that would be enough of that nonsense. With that decided I felt a little stronger.

Two sprays or three?" Morwen muttered sorting through the plants. "I suppose I'd better look it up."

She put the plants down and headed for a door that hummed with magic, and returned with a large book, which she immediately began flipping through with the air of someone who knew exactly what she was looking for.

Daystar blinked. "Excuse me, Morwen, but would you mind telling me where that door leads?"

Morwen stuck a finger in the rapidly turning pages and glanced up. "Wherever I want to get to. What good is a door if you can't get somewhere useful by walking through it?" she thought about it for a moment "Within reason, of course." She added, and then turned her attention back to the book.

Daystar blinked again then looked vaguely bemused and then appeared to give up on the whole business. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one who found Morwen's logic confusing. Though actually the idea of a witch having a magical door didn't seem too odd to me, if she had the magic why NOT use it to make life easier?

But, I kept quiet and ate my gingerbread, and watched Daystar have an internal debate over whether keeping a hold on his precious magic-biting sword was worth foregoing pretty delicious cider and the only food we'd had since the berries. It wasn't.

He had just moved to set the sword down when Morwen finished her preparations.

"Daystar, you aren't-Oh, of course, you're still holding the sword. No, don't put it down yet. This will only take a few more minutes." Daystar gave the gingerbread a longing glance then stood up and put on a polite expression. I snorted.

"Come here, please," Morwen said, picking up some plants "both of you." I bit off another hunk of gingerbread then hurried over. As much as I hated leaving behind the wonderful food it the witch was finally going to heal Daystar I had no problem lending a hand.

I had to keep repeating that to myself as Morwen kept repositioning us around the pot of water on the stove, fussing over the exact position of my hand on Daystar's arm and the exact angle of the blade in the water. By the fifth time she twitched my hand to the left I was ready to scream, Daystar had gone a little paler, if that was possible, and was starting to sweat though he was standing and holding the blade perfectly still. I was about to insist we sit down but at that moment Morwen stepped back, looked us over, and nodded.

"Very good. Stay just like that until I'm finished, please."

She pulled a silver knife out of her sleeve and dipped it into the pot of water. Then she began murmuring enchantments on the plants she was holding. At this the cats surrounded us, leaping off of chairs and appearing from unknown corners of the room until nine felines created a half-circle around the magical working. Their eyes glowed and their tails twitched faintly as prickles of magic started building up within the cat-made barrier.

It built, a pressure, and the volume of Morwen's mutterings grew with it, shaping the magic. The water boiled and Morwen voice rose to almost a shout 'By the darkness of the stone's heart, By the silence of the sea's tears, By the whisper of the sky's breath, By the dawning of the star's flame, Do as I will thee!"

She held the plants over her head the tossed them into the boiling water.

Steam saturated with Morwen's power reached out and enveloped Daystar in a cloud. I could feel her essence. "Do as I will thee she'd said" I could feel what she wanted of her magic, what she used it for: cleaning, baking, fixing, experiments, discovery, absolute efficiency. And then her will focused and the nebulous cloud of and healing and fixing, focused on one aim: heal the boy and remove the curse. I hadn't known there was a curse.

But the steam did, it spread out across Daystar slowly but surely leaching the curse out of him, pulling the sickness and infection back to its point of origin. The curse built up in his hand, pulsing and ugly, struggling to get free but it was bound in place by the vine around the hand. The vine that would only let curses in, never out.

The pulse became a roil of darkness and a cat I couldn't see yowled. Morwen's hand flashed through the steam, "In the King's name!" she cried, and the silver knife cut the vine form Daystar's arm.

The curse, freed at last, surged forwards. Daystar's sword flashed in what I'd almost call challenge or maybe acknowledgement, but before either the curse or the sword could do anything the steam gathered on Daystar's arm in an almost solid cloud. The curse rushed gleefully forward to infect and the cloud pulled it in, absorbing the darkness into itself rather than Daystar. The curse struggled, and a tendril broke free and began creeping up Daystar's arm.

The sword shot out a bolt of power that, made me gasp not only at its magnitude, but the strange intelligence in it. The single stroke not only fried the curse but shoved the remaining tendrils of darkness into the steam, and neatly cut off any magical connection to Daystar. The steam fell to the floor, condensing into a puddle of vicious black ooze.

I glanced over at Daystar and was pleased to find that he no longer looked like death warmed over, though his hand looked as horrible as ever.

"That," Morwen said, staring at the curse in disgust, "was an exceptionally nasty wizard. He deserves what's coming to him."

"What's coming to him?" I asked, with a vague hope that there was some backlash in the spell that would make something blow up on the wizard.

"I don't know, but he certainly deserves it," Morwen said. "Anyone who would keep a spell like that in a staff..." She shook her head and looked down. "I do hope it doesn't disagree with the cats."

The cats had contracted from a neat semi-circle to a small furry mob and were batting around the dark mass that had once been the curse. It had become a small disgusting creature-like thing, I caught glimpses of tentacles and empty eye sockets, and a several horrible wide jaws. But before I could get a better look Daystar stumbled and knocked into me.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly and froze.

Morwen answered before I could "It's quite all right. You can sit down again now. And if you don't want to put your sword in your sheath, you can lean it against the wall. You won't need it for the time being."

He actually obeyed and Morwen started bandaging his hand up in an oily looking salve that looked rather like the burn cream my mother had bought from the local enchantress, except that Morwen's was more pungent, and probably a lot more powerful. Daystar seemed relieved just to be sitting down and set to work finishing of the gingerbread and cider with his other hand. I snatched some more gingerbread and sat down next to him.

Daystar finished eating and immediately thanked the Morwen. In return she requested details about what, precisely had happened. Daystar started the tale about how the wizard had attacked us and how the creepy elf had insisted we take the staff along with us. He got up to our investigations of the staffs and then his memories got fuzzy, so I took over to describe how the staff had exploded.

"Of course the staff exploded!" Morwen said severely. "That sword doesn't like wizard's staffs. Next time, make sure it's sheathed before you touch one." I scowled, because there really was no way we could have known _that_ with how little Daystar knew about the sword. If it was so obvious then someone should have told us. If it had been so obvious then the elf knew about it and….

"I knew it!" I shouted "That elf was trying to get Daystar hurt!" Oh the things I would do to that stunted jerk.

"Not necessarily," Morwen said, evenly. "He may simply have been trying to make sure the wizard found you again. If you'd taken the pieces of the staff with you, the wizard would have had no trouble locating you once he got himself back together, because the first thing he'd do would be to look for his staff."

"If that elf wanted the wizard after us, why'd he get rid of the wizard in the first place?" I protested.

"I doubt that he did. It's more the sort of thing the sword does. I wouldn't depend on it in the future, though, particularly since you still haven't learned how to use it properly."

Well that was just silly, if wizards were chasing Daystar for the magic anti-wizard sword why hadn't anyone taught him how to use the stupid thing? You know to _defend _himself from the people chasing him? I was about to ask Morwen to teach him since she seemed to know so much but Daystar interrupted.

"What if the wizard couldn't find his staff when he came back?" he asked. I blinked at the change in subject

"Wizards always know where their staffs are. And it's almost impossible to keep wizards away from their staffs for any length of time. One can slow them down a bit by putting the staffs somewhere hard to get at, but they usually manage in the end."

"That's why Mother hid Antorell's staff." He muttered

"I shouldn't wonder," Morwen said in the same voice, then her voice became brisk and practical. "Now, I strongly suggest that you rest for a while, Daystar, and while you are doing so I will talk with Shiara in the library."

I was going to protest and insist that Morwen teach him how to use the sword. I'd actually started to speak when I glanced over at Daystar. He looked human again, relatively healthy, but healing took a lot out of a person and I could see his eyelids beginning to droop. He wasn't in any shape to be learning magic much less combat magic.

"All right," I said, and followed Morwen through the magical door with a train of cats behind me.


	6. Chapter 6

The following chapter is not in the book, in the book Shiara mentions that Morwen showed her some spells, promised to show her more, offered her a kitten, and the two of them agreed that Daystar and Shiara could stay at Morwen's also Shiara looks much happier.

I took this to mean that Morwen gave Shiara some promising leads on fire-witch magic (like introducing Shiara to an old friend from a previous book) and that some magical training happened. After all firewitches have an instinctive grasp of magic in general and it's established later in the book that witch magic is different from firewitch magic, so Shiara should be able to perform witch magic even if she can't use her own. Plus Morwen knows how important the quest is, and if she can't give them advice directly, she's most definitely going to try to indirectly aide them as much help as possible. Giving the untrained but powerful magic user in the group a few practical battle spells is right up her alley.

Plus, in the book Shiara doesn't do much in major battles/stand-offs after the first one, which is odd considering how quickly she jumped into "stupid water worm one" one, so I figured she was attacking another way. That's my take. Disagreement, advice, opinions: all are welcome.

**Chapter 6**

The room Morwen lead me to just a medium sized room, very pleasantly lit by a number of upper windows, and neatly filled bookcases on literally every bit of wall space. I took a moment just to stare and the cats flowed past me. They spread out to claim places on the well -worn large blue rug in the middle of the floor or on one of the rather comfortable chairs surrounding it. Morwen herself settled down next to a light grey cat and gave me a long measuring stare.

I lifted my chin and met her eyes, "What did you want to talk about?"

"I would like to know what you did to make such a nasty and powerful wizard come after you."

"Why?"

"Because wizards don't normally attack firewitches, And they normally don't overlook the fact that a hero is carrying a sword that has particular dislike for wizards, unless they are particularly stupid or focused on something they consider more important. Since you're currently in my house I would like to know which type of wizard I'm likely to be facing."

That seemed sensible enough, though dodging the question a bit, I wanted to be all cryptic in return, but I figure it takes more practice than I have and Morwen seemed sharp enough to slice through my beginner attempts. "They kidnapped me so that they could throw spells at me and see what I could resist because they didn't think I could stop them."

Morwen's head whipped up, "had they enchanted you somehow?"

"No they just thought my magic wasn't good enough to take all of them." Actually they knew that it didn't work at all, but I wasn't telling her that.

Morwen thought for a moment then nodded.

"Then I burned the head wizard's staff and ran away, and they got angry and chased me. That's probably why they're after me, the head wizard guy doesn't like me."

I was kind of hoping for a shocked response like Daystar's but Morwen just nodded again. "Quite sensible actually, impairing the most powerful spellcaster at the time and making the leader look like a fool. You must have created quite a bit of chaos in the ranks. Rather useful."

She stood up and moved over to a large desk, covered in papers, books and odd charms that looked only slightly less organized than the rest of the room.

"However, it does lead to problems, namely setting the entire society of wizards after you. and you're magic is rather muddled to be defending yourself from them all at once."

She glanced over her glasses at me, "It was flickering up quite a bit in the kitchen, I had to work around it quite carefully. How long has that been an issue?"

Well so much for not telling her. "You mean not being able to so much as light a fire when I want to and then accidentally burning everything near me when I get angry? All my life?! That's why the stupid wizards grabbed me in the first place. Because I'm a powerless firewitch who couldn't…."

"And yet both times the wizards attacked you, you were able to throw fire at them." Morwen interrupted calmly. I blinked, I had hadn't I?

"Well no one actually knows how firewitch magic works besides firewitches themselves."

"But I don't know…"

"I was not referring to you. I have a friend whose entire family is firewitches. I need to contact them about the wizards anyway and one of them should know what is wrong with you." She jotted a note down on one of the papers. "However they are going to be very busy for a little while and you have a quest to finish so we'll have to take some more immediate measures." She gave me a quicker version of the measuring stare. "How much did you get out of the spell I used to heal Daystar?"

I really felt like I was losing a hold of this conversation, talking to Morwen was like a flood of efficient practicality that swept you along past the questions it didn't want to answer and made everything seem already decided. So instead of pointing out that I had never signed up for any stupid quests, or asking why I couldn't just talk to the firewitch family now, or demanding that she help Daystar with his sword, I instead described the spell. I couldn't quite put it into words, so I ended up fumbling around a lot when I tried to describe how the magic took on Morwen-ness and purpose, or the curses malevolent "personality",or the swords response. But Morwen seemed satisfied.

"Instinctive recognition of magic. If you understood that much you should be able to pick up a few spells no problem"

"I've tried spells before, they've never worked!"

"You've tried to use firewitch magic, I teach plain witch spells. They channel magic differently. Most firewitches learn several types of magic besides their own, since they can instinctively tell how it works. There's no reason you shouldn't, especially since you need working magic.

I hadn't thought of it that way, I knew firewitch magic was special but I hadn't thought of trying other kinds. To be fair I hadn't particularly been exposed to any other kinds that much. The closest thing we had to a local witch was the Prince of the Ruby Throne who lived in a castle outside town that frequently emitted strange smokes and explosions. I wasn't even sure if those were magic or his bad temper.

"Where do we start?"

Plain witch spells turned out to be incredibly complicated. Witches are basically normal humans who don't have any magic of their own, and learned how to manipulate magic from outside sources using lots and lots of trial and error. So all of their magic comes complicated processes of setting up special ingredients, on ridiculously complicated spell diagrams and saying the right words in the right place while making the exact right movements. Morwen claimed that once you did a spell enough times and got experienced enough with you could start to simplify, to the point where all you had to do was say the words or sketch a diagram in the air. However, when she said "enough" she meant a few thousand times over years of magical practice.

I had one afternoon. So I only got to practice each spell a few dozen times. As she continuously pointed out, there was a good chance my life would depend on some of these spells so I had to know what I was doing, without looking at all my hastily scrawled notes and cheat sheets, and get it right the first time.

We started with a spell to view enchantments, I complained all the way through setting up the owl's feathers in the right location, insisting that I didn't need it. She gave me a look.

"And I suppose you're also used to the feeling of casting a new type of magic well enough that it won't affect your attempts to do a spell type that you've never tried before. Let's move straight on to invisibility spells then."

I stopped talking and did the spell.

It did feel different to cast, it wasn't fire leaping out to do my will, more like connecting tubes and guiding water along a certain path, if just one of them was out of line it wouldn't go where you wanted it. And unlike my own magic actually worked. The fifteenth time I coaxed the power through the metaphorical pipes there was a subtle change in the air and when I looked up there was a subtle network of gently glowing lines humming around the room in spirals and patterns like a great weaving. I laughed in delight and Morwen gave me a warm, somewhat far-off smile, like she was thinking of something else.

"Still think you don't need it?" she asked.

I grinned at her, too thrilled to snip back at her. "It worked."

"This time. Try it again." And again and again.

We did eventually move on to the invisibility spell. Only it wasn't a real invisibility spell since those were, first of all, too advanced to learn so quickly and, in Morwen's opinion, not up to snuff.

"People who are invisible tend to forget that grass tends to visibly bend around invisible feet, and that said feet make noise, and give off smells. To do an invisibility spell properly you have to block all of those things. If you forget one then people get suspicious. What you want is for them to not notice you in the first place. "

So I learned a blending spell, which essentially just made it seem as if everything about you (from magic to smell) was part of the background, visible but not something worth noticing.

"It doesn't work if someone already noticed you and people are deliberately looking for you, especially if they know you're using the spell. But if no one knows you're there it'll get you pretty far. And for some reasons it doesn't work on cats."

She glanced down at the brown tabby that had prowled next to her and it meowed smugly.

"Again."

So I did endless repetitions in which I was doing magic, magic that actually worked. I was doing the same thing over and over with irritating breaks just to set up the nitpicky little ritual. However if it worked it was beautiful. Or at least it was the first twenty times or so.

It distracted me enough to forget about the odd cat warning until the next spell.

"The circle is very important to the barrier, it can work as a containment or protection but either way you don't want something crossing it. If you make the circle perfect then there aren't any weak spots to break through. A perfect sphere can contain almost anything. Except cats of course."

"Why cats?"

"Keep working on shaping the clay, it has to follow the lines perfectly."

"I am, I can talk at the same time." It was only the fifth time I'd done it. "It's practicing multi-tasking in case I have to listen to some wizard monologuing while I work out how to defeat him."

"I recommend tuning that out."

"Why cats?"

" Because they're cats."

"So that makes them, what, resistant to magic?"

"I think they have their own sort of magic. Though they refuse to tell me anything about it. I think they enjoy being mysterious."

"Your cats talk?

"All cats do. I am able to understand what my cats say. It's a fairly simple spell, though no one's been able to modify it for universal cat translation."

I glanced around at the cats. "Do they have a lot to say?"

"About everything. Though they do provide fairly good company."

I finished the circle and stood back for a moment. Morwen nodded approvingly. "A little unbalanced but no weak points." A large grey tom meowed loudly and rubbed against her ankles. "All right…all right." She muttered and turned back to me "You can finish that up after we make dinner."

"Dinner? You're feeding us?"

"Well it's time for me to start making dinner and I'm not leaving you in my library to practice spells alone. And it would be rude for you to help make dinner and then not let you eat any."

"Who said I was helping?"

"Do you have anything else to do?"

I didn't. And frankly I still had questions to ask her, so I followed her.

The door took us out to a surprisingly normal looking garden. Morwen went straight to a little shed, pulled out a few baskets and set me to work pulling out what looked to be large purple carrots. She moved through the rows of plants, neatly clipping bits from herbs as she passed.

"So about this quest thing… " I began.

"No! Put that down." I turned quickly and saw Morwen admonishing a tiny ball of black fur, it waved a white paw at her "This is for dinner, we are not doing any spells and you are supposed to stay out of that part of the garden anyway. Murgatroyd, would you take this little scamp back to Miss Eliza?"

A dignified tom strolled out of the lettuce, batted the black kitten on the head and then carried the sulking young one out by the scruff of its neck.

"That girl has been spending entirely too much time with Trouble."

"What was she doing?"

"Trying to work her way into a spell, again. She's decided that she is a full grown witch's cat and therefore should be allowed to participate in spells, however she does not have anywhere near enough control to balance magic with eight other cats. And right now I don't have the time to let one of my spells go awry just so she can learn how to behave."

"So send _her_ on a quest, what…"

Morwen glanced up at me sharply, "That's not a bad idea." She said considering, "how would you like a kitten to go with you?"

"I can't take one of your cats."

"I would be giving it to you, and honestly I think it's the best thing for everyone."

I actually liked the idea, I'd never had a pet and cats were much easier to deal with than humans. To have someone to be able to talk to who wouldn't insist on politeness sounded almost too good to be true.

"Could you show me the spell so that I could talk to her."

Morwen smiled, "Tonight, as well as any other spells you want to learn."

"I don't know if we'll be staying tonight"

"Your other option is walking through the Enchanted Forest in the dark."

She had a point. But I had one too, "Combined, Daystar and I have the entire Society of Wizards after us, we don't want to get anyone caught in the middle of that."

Well I didn't, and Daystar would probably consider it very impolite.

Morwen's smile became sharp around the edges. "No trouble at all, the wizards and I have never been friends. They stole a book from me once and I've installed some very powerful anti-wizard spells since then, I would love to have the opportunity to see how they work. And I have several friends who would be quite eager to meet up with all those wizards in one place, it would save everyone an awful lot of bother."

I found myself liking Morwen a lot more. She picked up the carrots I'd picked and set them in her basket of herbs. "I have plenty of rooms and I don't mind. Now you stay out here and enjoy the sunlight."

As much as I hate being bossed around that was the sort of order I didn't mind obeying. It was only after Morwen went back inside that I realized that I hadn't gotten Morwen to talk about our quest or the stupid sword at all. It was annoying but I couldn't find it in me to get really upset.

I could do magic, not fire-witch magic but spells that worked. I was that much closer to meeting other fire-witches, I was getting my own kitten, I was going to have real food and a bed tonight, and I didn't have to worry about wizards until tomorrow. I settled down on a warm stone bench and let the sunlight wash over me.

Daystar came out and sat down next to me. He asked me what had happened while he was asleep. I told him I'd been talking to Morwen. He knew there was more than that but honestly I wanted to have magic secretly for once, without others expectations, so that if I couldn't do something, I hadn't let anyone down.

"She's been showing me some things," I told him "And she's going to give me a kitten."

"That's nice," he said. He seemed to be thinking about it for a moment but didn't say anything else. I guess that meant it was alright with him.

He was less alright with the idea of staying at Morwen's overnight, on the principle that neither of us had ever met her before. Personally I thought that was ridiculous, since he'd already fallen asleep once in her house and if she hadn't done anything horrible. I was still working on getting through to him when one of the cats come and got us for dinner.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The carrots and herbs had been mixed with bits of some sort of meat to create the most awfully smelling, delicious stew possible. Morwen gave half to the cats and then sat down and ate half with us. Daystar waited until Morwen took the first bite before he started eating. Morwen noticed too, and calmly asked if he wanted to stay the night. He tried very carefully not to insult her while saying "I'm not sure if I trust you". She let him state his case, responded calmly and practically, then moved the conversation to a discussion on magical theories. Daystar relaxed and by the end of the meal he'd agreed to spend the night.

Morwen showed him to one of her spare rooms and then we headed back to the library to enchant my kitten. And the kitten that had been bugging every cat in the place to let her be part of magic, slept through her first spell.

"Growing kittens need their sleep." Morwen had said, with a relatively straight face while the other cats rolled about in laughter at least that's what Morwen said the odd sneezing sounds were. The down side of this was that I didn't even get to introduce myself to my kitten. A thought which I put down to Daystar's influence.

Morwen immediately started me on practicing the previous spells again though she also offered to teach me any reasonably simple spells that I could think of. At that point my brain was turning to mush and all I could think to ask for was a healing spell and one that would "dry Daystar and his sword off from twenty feet away without setting the git on fire. Morwen had suppressed a chuckle and sent me to bed.

The next morning she handed me cards with exact instructions and diagrams for the spells I'd asked for and the other two I'd learned. "Just in case."

I was too tired to respond and just sat down to eat. Across the table Daystar was flexing his right hand, which was unblackened and whole. A weight that I hadn't realized was still there lifted off my shoulders and I perked up a little. I trusted Morwen and her her healing skills, but there's a difference between knowing a friend's going to be healed and actually seeing them whole and unscarred.

Morwen reappeared with a couple of bundles and a small black kitten with one white paw. She handed me the kitten and one of the surprisingly light bundles and turned on Daystar .

The kitten yawned hugely and wiggled in my hands.

"I'm awake, I'm ready for spells." She sounded like a five year-old woke up, insisting she hadn't just been asleep.

"The spells done, kitten. I'm Shiara"

"The kitten leapt up an my hands. "WHAT! No one told me! My first spell!" she curled up in a dramatic despair pose and started muttering about how all the older cats must hate her.

Morwen, had headed outside and Daystar stepped aside to let me through. I walked outside, shaking my head at the ridiculous kitten and felt something hit my back.

"Watch out!" I yelled irritably then turned to see Daystar holding himself up by the doorframe. "Daystar! What's the matter?"

He didn't look like he heard me, he had a death grip on his stupid sword and kept staring at it like he was hypnotized. His head turned slowly and stared at Morwen with this odd confusion and wonder. He blinked and turned to me with the same expression. I was starting to wonder if all the magic and healing had started to catch up with him and messed with his head when comprehension seemed to dawn on him.

"It's magic!" he said.

After all that, all he realized was that his sword was magic? "Of course it's magic, honestly, Daystar-"

"No, I mean that's what it does," he interrupted . "The Sword of the Sleeping King finds magic!"

"Among other things," Morwen said sounding oddly satisfied.

"Finds magic?" I repeated, doubtfully. I could do that, the spell Morwen had just taught me could do that (with a little modification) why would you need a sword that could find magic?

"That's what the tingling is," Daystar went on excitedly "tingles mean different kinds of magic, and the tingles get stronger when the sword gets closer to the magic."

Maybe it was particularly detailed about the magic. I reached out to grab the sword and Daystar turned to look straight at me. "No wonder it gave me such a jolt when we both touched it at the same time."

I yanked my hand back, the memory of having my... essence messed with like that was enough to make me run screaming away from the stupid sword. But that would just look stupid.

"If the sword finds magic, how come I couldn't feel anything until you touched it? And if the tingles are the way it finds things, why can't you feel them all the time?" We were in the Enchanted Forest after all. How come he wasn't being bothered by the constant background magic?

"I don't know," he said, and let go of the sword.

There was a moment of silence. Then Morwen nodded thoughtfully ""I see. There is considerably more to you than I had expected, Daystar." Daystar blinked at her but she just kept going. "However, it is time for you to be going. You see those two trees? Walk straight between them and keep on until you get to a stream, then follow the stream northward. You'll get to something eventually, and you should be able to figure out what to do from there."

Those were probably some of the vaguest directions in the world, but at least we had directions this time. I turned and saw Daystar staring at Morwen again, with an odd expression.

"Exactly," Morwen said.

"What?" I asked

"Let's go," Daystar said, looking like he really did not want to talk about it.

I scowled at him. I hated being left out of the loop but I could always ask him later. So I let it drop.

We said good-bye to Morwen and Daystar gave an excessively polite thank you which I tried and failed to copy. Then we set off walking the way Morwen had pointed us.

The kitten shook off its dramatic despair and hopped up on my shoulder where we could talk quietly.

"All right, we're stuck together so I might as well get used to it." She looked me up and down. "You're a firewitch and…" She turned to Daytar "what is he?"

"He's Daystar, he's polite." The kitten sniffed "Apart from that I'm not sure, he says he's not a hero but he's got a magical sword which apparently works against wizards and his mother told him all this stuff about the Enchanted Forest."

"Sounds like a hero to me." The kitten's eyes widened "or maybe he's an adventurer! That would be even better! That means big stuff would happen and we'd get to be part of it."

"What's the difference?"

"Well a hero is one of those people who goes out to do lots of big deeds and stuff because he wants to get famous and live life to the fullest and blah, blah, blah. An adventurer just sort of has an adventure plopped on him, he didn't actually mean to do anything but he changes the world in this big, huge, really cool way. And lots of big things happen around him. That means we'd get to go on the adventure."

"Do adventures normally involve people randomly attacking you, no one answering your questions, and a whole lot of walking."

"Uh-huh"

"Then we're probably already on one." The kitten looked around and noticed that we were actually moving for the first time, she gave a small yowl.

"Why don't you tell me these things! Put me down Put me down!"

"What?"

"I can't just be carried through a quest, especially if it turns out to be an adeventure. I have to help. I have to walk on my own. Put me down."

"You're too little, you'll slow us down."

The kitten fixed me with an adorable pint sized version of a death glare, "I. AM. NOT. TOO. SMALL!" Then she jumped out of my hands with a little oof!

I tried to pick her up again but she hissed and scratched me every time I tried. So Daystar and I slowed the pace a bit and let her walk. "See I'm fine. I can do this!" she declared.

An hour later she was most definitely flagging "Are you sure you don't want me to carry you?"

"No…I…can.… do…this." There were pants and wheezes in between every word. But she kept moving forward. I waited another few minutes then grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and hugged her to my chest with a cloth-covered arm. Her legs kept moving for a little while, then there were a few half hearted paw swipes, which I'm pretty sure were attempts to scratch me and then she fell asleep.

I put her on my shoulder and Daystar and I started talking. More accurately I told Daystar where the huge gaps in my knowledge of the Enchanted Forest and he tried to fill them in. Apparently being polite was a big thing for most creatures around here, as in not being polite generally resulted in being cursed or dying, which is why his mom had stressed it so much.

We were talking about the exact wording to use when offering to do favors, when Daystar started glancing around uneasily. Then he stopped and looked around.

"Ahem," said a voice.

"Oh, hello, Suz," Daystar replied to apparently. He nodded slightly forward and I noticed a gold lizard, small enough to fit in my hand looking slightly down on me from a branch.

Daystar, of course, continued with introductions. "Shiara, this is Suz. You remember, I told you about him." He had actually, but for some reason I hadn't expected the all-knowing talking lizard to be quite so small and squeaky. Suz, this is my friend Shiara."

The lizard ignored me, quite rudely I should point out, and stared at Daystar.

"Why," he demanded, "didn't you tell me Cimorene was your mother?"

Suz, gave Daystar a reproachful look, which looked decidedly odd on a lizards face. "It would have saved me a great deal of trouble if you'd mentioned it." I found that rather funny considering the way that no one seemed to be willing to mention any important information that would save _us _a whole lot of bother, and instead gave us vague hints and knowing looks. But I was trying to be polite, so I kept my mouth shut and let Daystar do the talking

"I'm sorry," he said, smoothly. "I didn't know it mattered."

"You didn't?" Suz ran down the branch to peer at Daystar more closely. "No, you really didn't! How amazing. I can't understand how it happened."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. He obviously knew what was going on. And if he was going to twitter on about all the oh-so-important information Daystar should have told him he could at least tell us why it was important.

Instead of doing anything so useful the lizard turned and nearly fell off his branch examining me.

"You've brought someone with you? Dear me, this will never do. Who is this?"

"I've already introduced you once," Daystar reminded him, patiently. "You weren't listening."

"You did? Yes, of course, you did. How perfectly dreadful." The lizard started running around the branch in a frenzy.

"What's so dreadful?" I asked, again specifics would be nice. "There's nothing wrong with me."

"No, of course, there isn't. Oh, dear, Kazul will be terribly unhappy about this."

"Who is Kazul?" Daystar asked.

Suz looked up, shocked. "You don't know? No, you don't. I haven't told you yet. Kazul is who you're going to see." He said as if that explained anything.

"Why should I want to see Kazul?" Daystar asked. "And why should he care about me, or Shiara, or anything?"

"She," Suz corrected. "And of course you want to see her. You have the Sword of the Sleeping King, don't you? I'm afraid she'll be dreadfully upset if you bring someone with you, though."

"Well, I'm not going to leave Shiara alone in the middle of the Enchanted Forest," Daystar said firmly. It was ridiculous because I would be fine on my own, but, it was nice to have someone say that they weren't going to abandon you, even for their big important quest.

"No, no, you couldn't possibly do that," the lizard agreed. "That wouldn't be right at all. Dear me, whatever are we going to do?" Okay not being abandoned was nice but being discussed like you were some sort of helpless little idiot wasn't.

"You don't have to worry about me," I replied. "I'm a fire-witch. I can take care of myself."

"You are?" Suz turned his head and stared at me so intently his eyes crossed. "You really are! How convenient! Everything's quite all right, then. Kazul won't mind a fire-witch at all." Gee. I'm so glad I have the magical talking lizard seal of approval.

"Who," Daystar said slowly "is Kazul?"

The lizard stared thoughtfully at him for a while. "I don't think I ought to tell you any more," he said at last. "You're quite safe, you really are, but it wouldn't do at all for Kazul to lose her temper with me. Oh, dear, no."

"Quite safe? In the middle of the Enchanted Forest, with wizards after us?" I asked. "You're crazy."

"I am? No, I'm not at all! How very rude." He turned his back, looking extremely offended. Lizards are not built to look offended, it makes them look…very odd.

Daystar sighed. "Shiara."

I looked at him, he looked back with the air of someone who is not going to budge. I looked away first. "Well, it's dangerous to be out here, even if you do have that stupid sword," I muttered. "What's wrong with saying so?" It was only the truth.

"It wasn't very polite," he said. "And you promised you'd try."

I glanced up at him, I had hadn't I. It was the stupid principle of the thing. I sighed. "Oh, all right. I'm sorry, Suz."

The lizard twisted his head to look at me. "You are?" He ran around the branch and peered at me from underneath the limb.

"No, you're not at all. How disappointing." I blinked, well I wasn't not really but.. " I accept." He ran back up on top of the branch.

"Accept?" I asked.

"Your apology," the lizard said with dignity. A dignified lizard looks even odder than an offended one.

"Oh." If he was going to accept an apology that I didn't even mean why had he even wanted one in the first place?

"If you won't tell us who Kazul is, will you at least tell us how to find her?" Daystar jumped in.

"You won't have any trouble," the lizard assured him. "Just head for the castle. Kazul will-" He broke off in mid-sentence, staring at me, or actually at my kitten, which was just starting to wake up. "What is that?" he demanded .

"A kitten," I said. "What does it look like?" To blazes with politeness.

"You're sure it's under control?" he asked nervously.

"What do you mean, under control?" I said. "She's a perfectly well-behaved kitten. Morwen wouldn't have given her to me if she wasn't." I didn't really know that, but it seemed logical and I didn't like the way he was insulting my kitten.

"Cats are not-Did you say Morwen?"

"Yes, I said Morwen. Can't you finish a sentence?"

"You've been to see Morwen? I didn't know that. Oh, dear me, I must be dreadfully behind. Why, all sorts of things could be happening that I don't know about! How perfectly dreadful. I must really get back to work at once. Oh yes, indeed I must."

The lizard ran down the branch and disappeared behind the tree trunk.

"Wait a minute!" Daystar yelled and followed around the back of the tree. He came back shaking his head.

"He's gone again," He said. "And he still hasn't told me what castle he's talking about."

"So what? Nobody else has told us anything either." And personally I didn't think he'd have actually gotten to the point about anything useful even if we'd stood around and talked all day.

"I don't think he's very polite." I pointed out " He didn't even say good-bye."

"He keeps going off like that," Daystar said with a shrug. "I think that's just how he is."

I wanted to ask then how come my snapping at his nonsense didn't count as 'just the way I was' but I resisted.

"Well, I can't say I'm sorry he left," I said aloud. "Come on, let's find that stream Morwen was talking about. I'm thirsty."

We started off again. My kitten was far too awake to stay on my shoulder so I let her walk again. She was in a much better mood since the lizards non-answers had convinced her that we were on an adventure, not a quest "There's a difference" she told me and I didn't ask.

"Fine kitten but.. What is your name anyway it's rather ridiculous to keep calling you kitten, all the time."

"I don't have one. All the other cats called me little one or runt or cutie, and those are not fit names for a proper witch's cat. Especially not one on an adventure." She rolled the r lovingly "I need something more intimidating and magical and kind of scary."

So Daystar and I started discussing names while the as-yet-unnamed kitten leapt about attacking shrubbery excitedly and giving her opinion. She liked the idea of black themed names "like my fur! Something dark but witchy!" So I went for literal and suggested Nightwitch. It was a little bit presumptuous for such a little cat but figured she'd grow into it kitten loved it and agreed immediately. Daystar didn't seem thrilled with the idea but seemed to get the idea that it was, after all my cat. So we continued on with Nightwitch leaping at our ankles crying "the dreaded Nightwitch attacks!"

She gave it up quickly and concentrated more on walking, but with occasional contented purrs that sounded like her new name. She was the only one who wasn't grumpy, tired, and hungry by the time we reached the stream. However that didn't stop her from wolfing down an entire meat pie when we stopped at the stream to eat. We'd opened the bundles for lunch, and found nice big packets of food on top. We had a nice little feast of meat pies and apples and gingerbread with plenty of water from the stream to wash it down.

Then we wrapped up the left-overs and kept walking, trying to stay as close to the stream as possible without getting our feet wet. Though in a couple of places the trees grew right up at the water's edge, and we ended up taking off our shoes and wading anyway rather than going into the dark forest and risk losing sight of the stream. The water was less than a foot deep but Nightwitch, who'd refused to sacrifice her dignity and be carried, complained about wet fur for miles. The complaints got louder the more time we spent in the stream. In the end I was glad when the woods started to open up again, simply for the sake of my ears.

Then Daystar stopped, in the middle of the stream.

I glanced around him, thinking there was wizards or danger ahead, then just rolled my eyes. Up ahead was a pretty little clearing with a lovely little princess in it. Only a princess would run around the Enchanted Forest, of all places, in a blue silk gown with long loose hair waiting to be caught on some random branch.

She must have been posed there for quite a while since her hair was now noticeably tangle free, which must have taken her a few hours at least, to accomplish. She was sitting in a "demure maiden pose" which showed of her gown and one randomly popping out foot, with a mournful "pity me" expression in her big blue eyes that ever so conveniently matched the shade of her gown.

It was all rather ridiculous but apparently effective because Daystar was gaping at her like a landed fish. I snorted and poked him to get him moving. My cat was getting we from him gaping at her. Daystar nearly tripped over himself to get out of the stream and get his shoes on, while I got my kitten out and started drying her off. When I looked up the fool was rushing towards the princess.

"That ought to do it Nightwitch. Now go sit in the sunlight and dry off while I make sure Daystar doesn't do something stupid like enlist us in a quest to save her kingdom."

"That'd be inconvenient" I heard her mutter as I hurried to join Daystar.

He stopped and bowed, a gesture I felt no need to copy, and the princess gave him a shaky little smile.

"I bid you such poor welcome as I may," she said in a breathy, annoyingly flowy voice."Alas! That I can offer you no refreshment. For I am in great distress."

Oh, dear no tea and crumpets, whatever shall we do.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Daystar said earnestly. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I fear not," the Princess replied "For you are as yet a youth. Alas! And woe is me! For I am in great distress."

"All right, all right. So tell us about it," I said. We couldn't do anything if we didn't know what was wrong and she obviously wanted to tell us, so might as well cut to the chase. Though she was being so flowery and evasive simply saying she had a problem the story itself would probably take a while; I sat down on the ground and looked at the Princess expectantly.

"You are kind to inquire of my sad tale," the Princess said. "It is not long to tell. My father was a king, much beloved of his people, and I his only daughter. Being lonely after my mother's death, my father remarried, to a woman comely but proud, and under her influence have I suffered these seven years. And now the King my father is dead, and my stepmother hath cast me out, to wander alone and friendless through the world. Alas! For I am-"

"In great distress. We know. You said that before," I said "Why didn't you throw her out when your father died? It would have saved you a lot of trouble." Beloved only child of the king should mean heir shouldn't it? And I couldn't see people really objecting to the legitimate heir ousting the evil queen.

"Twas not within my power to work harm against her, alas. And now I seek some prince or hero who will take pity on my destitute state and return me to my proper place. Woe is me! That I should be without help in such distress."

"Sounds like a lousy excuse to me," I muttered under my breath. Twas not within my power my foot, she just wanted to have some handsome young hero come and make everything better.

"I'm afraid we can't help you get your kingdom back," Daystar said. Oh good he realized that. "I'm very sorry. But if there's any other service I can do for you, I'd be happy to try."

"Daystar?" I asked. Hadn't he just been telling me that open ended promises like that were a very bad idea? That you should hear what they wanted first?

I saw the understanding dawn and a look of mild horror on his face. He swallowed.

"There is one thing," the Princess said. She looked up with triumphant eyes and a far too sweet smile.

"Give me your sword."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

My mind started running much faster than normal, this couldn't happen, this stupid little princess couldn't make Daystar give up his precious sword just because of one stupid promise, almost a slip of the tongue. There had to be some way out of this. Everyone had said it was important, there was some big quest-adventure going on that needed the great Sword of...

"Wait a minute, Daystar."

Daystar turned and looked at me, his hand on the swords hilt, ready to just hand it over. I looked the Princess dead in the eye. "Daystar hasn't got a sword."

"What?" Daystar and the Princess asked in confused unison. The Princess frowned. "I am not blind, to be so easily deceived. See, there it is." She pointed to at the sword.

But it wasn't Daystar's

"That," I told her, happily, "is the Sword of the Sleeping King. So it belongs to him, not to Daystar, and Daystar can't give it away."

The Princess blinked, and started trying to puzzle that one out, I figured that at least should buy us some time to leave. Though really if a sword is named after someone then they really are the true owner, chances are it's supposed to be restored to them or something. True, Daystar seemed to have magically been picked as a temporary substitute by the great magical displays that apparently kept happening, but the princess didn't have to know that.

I heard Daystar sigh, and turned to see him still reaching for the sword's hilt.

"Daystar, what are you doing?"

"Giving her the sword," he said, tugging at it, ineffectually. "You know as well as I do what she meant."

It didn't matter what she'd meant it was what she said. He certainly hadn't meant to promise to give up his sword had he?

"Well, if all those wizards and sorceresses can be picky about the way people say things, why can't you?" I snarled. I'd just gotten him out of the trap the little nit had put him in why did he feel he still had to do what she said. Yeah, it was a stretch but why was he trying so hard? "You can't even get it out of the sheath! You only said you'd try to do what she wanted. Well, you've tried. Isn't that enough?" There, another loophole, even better he'd done exactly what he'd said.

But Daystar just sighed. "I'm sorry, Shiara, but it's my sword, and I'm not a wizard. I just have to do it."

"Daystar, you… you…". I couldn't even find words to express how stupid it was to let being all noble and more high minded get him into trouble, how he really did not owe the girl who had tried to trick him anything, or what complete and utter moron he was. In the end I just glared.

He tugged at the sword again. Fine if he wanted to be that stupid, let him, I'd tried to help him, but he wouldn't listen. I whirled around so I wouldn't have to see his stupidity.

Instead I heard it, the entire woods had gone quiet to allow me to hear him tell the twit "Here. Take it." In a stupid tragic, heroic (and I mean that in the worst possible way) voice.

And then there was a rumbling and a great wave of magic, old and elemental and ridiculously powerful, like the background magic of the Forest had concentrated in this one little glade. I looked back and saw the sword hit the ground, there was another rumble and then an enormous geyser burst out of the ground and shot up past the tree tops. There was another surge of magic, even more powerful, that actually knocked off my feet.

The princess shrank back as far as she could. She couldn't feel the magic but she knew the feeling of power much, much greater than her. Only Daystar remained standing in the middle of the flood of water and magic.

"All hail the Holder of the Sword" Cried a voice to match the magic in power and immensity.

And then it all disappeared, the voice, the magic, and the geyser.

The sword remained, standing upright and halfway out of its sheath in a small pool of water that still held the faint echoes of power. The entire tableau shone in the sunlight: sword, water, and chosen bearer of the powerful sword.

Daystar looked back with a bemused expression.

The Princess burst into tears. "I knew not that this weapon was of such potency," she said between sobs. "Alas! For I cannot hold the sword, and who now will be my help? Alas, and woe is me!"

"You mean you don't want the sword anymore?" I asked, figuring we should get important details out of the way first.

The Princess nodded vaguely, and went on weeping.

"And Daystar can have it back now?"

She nodded again, too carried away by weeping to actually respond.

Daystar, of course, produced one of his magically appearing handkerchiefs. It was pretty much soaked but he wrung it out and handed it over to the weeper.

"What am I to do?" she kept saying. "Who now will be my help? Alas! For I am in great distress!"

After she'd backstabbed us trying to help her the first time? Yeah right. "Oh, help yourself," I muttered. "Daystar, are you going to take that stupid sword?"

He hesitated, but reached out and grabbed the hilt. The blade flashed and there was a frisson of magic as Daystar, pulled the sword (and sheath) out of the water. He examined it closely, but at least this time he didn't ask me to dry it for him.

Instead he did something stupider.

"Are you sure you don't want this?" he asked the Princess.

"Daystar!" I yelled, with the desperate urge to whack some sense into him.

"I cannot take it!" the Princess cried. "Oh, indeed, I cannot! Alas! That I am so helpless in my time of need!"

"Well, if you didn't want the sword, why did you ask for it in the first place?" I snarled at her.

"I fear I have deceived you," the Princess cried, dramatically. Yeah, big shock there. "Yet I myself have been misled. Alas! I beg of you, forgive me! For indeed, I am-I am in great distress."

"Distress? Ha! You better tell us the truth, right now, or you'll find out what distress is."

"Shiara-" Daystar began.

I rounded on him. "You shut up. You obviously don't know anything about handling princesses, so let me do it." He'd already bungled the whole situation enough. I turned back to the Princess, "Now,explain. And it better be good."

"I am a king's daughter," the Princess said. "My father would have me wed the prince of a neighboring kingdom, to bring us wealth. Yet I could not, for I love not him but another. My father listened not, for all my pleading, so my love and I fled into the forest. We wandered far, and great was our suffering, yet we were happy, for we had each other. But I, being unused to travel, became tired, and my love at last set me here and bade me wait for him. And here have I stayed these two long days, and I fear me some evil may have befallen him. Alas! That we are parted!"

"What, "I asked, with all the limited patience I could muster "does all this have to do with Daystar's sword?"

The Princess sighed again, yeah I was sure giving straight answers was very hard on her. "I was seated here, as you see me, bewailing my bitter fate, when lo! a man appeared, most wise and powerful of aspect. He told me my love was imprisoned by a mighty sorceress, and at that news I wept bitterly. Then he bade me desist from my grief, for the means of delivering my love was at hand, to wit, a sword most magical. And he himself made promise of aid, if I would but attain the sword. And this have I attempted, and I have failed. Alas, and woe is me!"

"I don't think I understand," Daystar said. "Why didn't you tell us this to begin with?" He probably would have been even more eager to have handed over his precious sword.

The Princess went back to weeping. "My unknown friend instructed me in what I was to say and told me that all would be well once I had the sword in my own hands. And in this he deceived me, for the touch of the sword burned so that I cannot hold it. And the cause is that I deceived you, and tricked you into offering me the sword, and the sword knew, and it will not abide in my hand, and now am I utterly without hope." (More likely because it was a magical sword that reacted poorly to being held by anyone but it's bearer, but if she took 9it as a moral lesson fine by me, I had more important things to worry about)

"What did this person look like?" I asked. "The one you were going to give the sword to." The very suspicious person, with a whole plan to take the sword, who she'd automatically trusted.

Eventually we managed to get a description of _what he looked like _out of her praises on how wise and powerful and trustworthy he seemed. He'd been tall, dark haired, blue eyed, and carrying a staff.

"It sounds a lot like Antorell," Daystar said.

"Antorell?" I asked.

"The wizard that Mother melted. She said he might try to make trouble for me in a day or two."

"Oh, great. All we need is another wizard looking for us."

The Princess was still caught up in her great despair "Alas!" she cried. "There is nothing left for me but grief. I have no means now to save my love, so I shall die with him. I shall fling myself in yonder stream and make an end."

"You are even dumber than Daystar," I told her, and ,right now, that was saying something. "That stream isn't deep enough to drown in. You'll only get wet. Besides, if that stupid wizard lied about the sword, how do you know he didn't lie about your love? Who is this person you ran off with, anyway?"

"He is a knight," the Princess said, her eyes lighting up in a rather scary way. "Poor in goods, yet rich in spirit, of most pleasing aspect. His eyes are a hawk's, his arms are mighty, and his sword is bright and-"

He sounds like he can take care of himself," I interrupted, figuring she could go on like that for days. "I don't think you have to worry about him."

"Truly, you believe this?" her face was practically glowing. "Then here will I await his coming, for surely he will return to me. Ah, joy! That we shall soon be once more together!"

Or she could actually go find, him and check if he was all right. Verify what people told her, since the last person she'd listened to had been a lying wizard. No instead she was going to sit, neatly posed in that spot on the off chance her prince, correction knight, happened to wander by. Not my problem "I'm sure you'll be very happy. Come on, Daystar, let's go." I stood up to leave

"I don't think we should leave her here by herself," Daystar replied.

"Daystar, you're impossible! She tried to trick you! Besides, she's been here two days already, and nothing's happened to her yet."

"Alas! I did indeed attempt to deceive you," the Princess said. "And for that I beg forgiveness. Yet consider my unhappy plight, and be not harsh with me."

"Oh, shut up," I snapped

"What if Antorell comes back?" Daystar pointed out. "Somebody ought to take care of her. Besides, I made a promise."

"Well, I didn't!" I snarled "And I'm not going to sit here doing nothing just because of a stupid princess! I'm leaving."

You can't do that?" he said, he sounded really upset, a distant part of my mind noted. I didn't care.

"Want to bet?" I asked and grabbed the bundle Morwen had given me. I'd go find the fire-witch family while he sat babysitting the brainless blonde. I was not stalling my life for her. "Come on, Nightwitch. Let's go."

"Nightwitch? What an unusual name for a cat," said a new voice.

I tasted magic in the air and stopped. At the edge was an old man, with a long white beard and a staff, dressed in ridiculous long robes. Translation: a wizard.

The Princess, who'd obviously learned absolutely nothing immediately threw herself at his mercy. "Ah, sir, have pity on my sad state!" she said. "Have pity, and if you have seen a knight, bright armored, hawk eyed, most fair and pleasing in speech and semblance, then tell me speedily where he may be found. For he is my love, and we are parted, and thus am I in great distress! Alas!"

"That's quite all right, my dear," the wizard said in a kindly voice. "You've nothing to worry about. In fact, he should be here before very much longer. That's why I hurried. Just sit there and wait quietly, like a good girl."

"Oh, joy! Oh, bliss! To be with my love again? " said the Princess, thrilled, because the old man had sounded _so _convincing. I couldn't really say much though because that's essentially what I'd told her. And babbling to the air about how strong and handsome and generally wonderful her missing knight was, seemed to keep her happy and occupied.

Meanwhile, Daystar, Nightwitch, and I were edging backwards, the other edge of the clearing.

The wizard notice. "Take your hand from your sword," he said, staring at Daystar "I am not here to engage in a vulgar physical contest with you." No it would be a vulgar, battle of magic, and I wasn't even sure if mine was working.

Are you from the Society of Wizards?" I demanded, trying to keep my voice as strong as possible.

"No," the wizard said. "Why? Are you looking for one of them?"

"Then why are you here?" Daystar asked, a tense edge to his voice

"Why, to assist you," the wizard said.

"Assist us?" That shocked me. "But you're a wizard!"

"I am not at all concerned with your baseless prejudices," the wizard sniffed haughtily. "I have come to offer to help your companion, and I will thank you to cease interfering."

That sounded more like a wizard to me.

"I don't want to be impolite," Daystar said, quickly, "but why do you want to help me?"

"Why, because you deserve it, of course," the wizard said. "You made a foolish promise to this other young lady," he nodded toward the Princess, who was prattling on. "You could have gotten out of it several times, but you refused to behave dishonorably. I think that is deserving of a reward."

Dishonorably, try sensibly.

"Thank you very much," Daystar said and then seemed at a loss.

"Well, what would you like?" the wizard prompted

"Like?"

"As a reward." He snapped

Daystar seemed to consider that "I appreciate the offer," he said finally. "But I really don't need anything. Thank you very much all the same."

"What? Isn't there anything you want?" he asked sharply. Looking distinctly more sinister.

"No, I don't think so," he said.

The wizard looked confused. "Perhaps I did not make myself clear enough," he said. "You need not ask for something material. Information will do just as well. The word for sorcery in the tongue of the giants, or the location of the Well of Silver Storms, where the unicorns drink. There must be something you want to know, even if there is nothing you want to have."

. "No," Daystar replied, easily. "I don't think there is anything."

The wizard glared. "Come, come! You need to know the name of your father, do you not?"

Where had that come from?

"No," Daystar sounded confused too. "Why should I?"

"You're looking for him, aren't you?" the wizard snapped.

"No, not really."

"You aren't? Then you must know! She told you! Who is it?"

"I thought you were going to tell Daystar that," I pointed out. "Don't you know?"

"Silence, fool! I have waited too long for this." The wizard turned on Daystar "You will tell me now or regret it deeply: Who is your father?"

"I don't know," Daystar, shot back. "And if I did, I don't see why I should tell you."

"There are other ways of learning what I wish to know," the wizard snarled. He straightened abruptly; the Princess squeaked and fell silent.

Nightwitch hissed." I've heard the other cats talking about him, not nice wizard." I grabbed her and edged backwards, starting to whisper bits of the protection spell as I went.

The wizard grew a little taller and lost about fifty years. His beard and hair darkened and filled in, while his eyes from brown to blue. The air was thick with the annoying hum of wizard magic.

"Antorell!" Daystar cried and drew his sword, in a flash of steel. The hum dulled in response to slow ripples of purer magic ,the air in the clearing brightened.

The wizard sneered

"Fool! What use is a sword against a wizard?" Apparently oblivious to the magic of the sword.

He raised his staff, summoning a globe of green light to the end. A thread of green, dark and bright reached out toward Daystar with the same malevolent air of the spell that had cursed his hand. I whispered the words faster, trying to reach the protection out towards Daystar. I needn't have bothered.

Morwen had said the sword didn't like wizards, she hadn't mentioned how effective it was. As soon as the green light touched the Sword of the Sleeping King, I felt a quieter version of the flash of challenge from when the sword had reacted to the curse. And then the curse was gone.

Antorell frowned, and another, larger ray of green reached out. I didn't try to protect Daystar this time, I just watched as not only the spell but all the magic gathered at the tip of the wizard's staff disappeared into the sword.

Antorell 's expression was priceless. He looked shocked.

"You cannot! Not possibly! That sword can't… " He spluttered then he took a deep breath. "So! She must have known all along. But now I will have that weapon. I must have that weapon!"

"No," Daystar said. "Mother wouldn't like it."

Personally, I thought that sounded like a ridiculous cry of defiance when battling a wizard. However it really seemed to get to the wizard.

Antorell's eyes narrowed. "Cimorene has had her way long enough. If you will not give me that sword, I will take it." He started to raise the staff again.

The tree-sized lilacs behind Antorell rustled noisily, and the wizard shifted.

"You, there? he called over his shoulder, ready to blast whoever had ruined his big dramatic moment. "Show yourself at once!"

There was a noise behind him, and the tops of the lilacs rustled again.

Antorell frowned and turned to the intruder, raising his staff. "I will teach you to interfere" His expression flashed to mingled surprise and fear He stepped backward very quickly and waved his staff through the air in front of him.

"Achoo!" said the voice, and an enormous ball of fire demolished the lilacs and enveloped Antorell. The wizard screamed and disappeared replaced by the fire breathing (or really sneezing) intruder.

And that was how I met my first dragon.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

People always talk about how terrifying and huge dragons are, what no one mentions is how tall, and how useful it can be that they were so tall. The fireball that accompanied the next sneeze pretty much destroyed the lilac bush but sailed over our heads by a good three feet.

The Princess, who paid more attention to the "fireball" and less to the "completely missed us" part of the whole situation, took the oh-so-helpful course of dramatically fainting.

I snorted and the dragon glanced over, then did a double take. It looked me up and down with this mad speculative gleam in its eye. I glared back at him, I was fireproof that was the one part of being a fire-witch that had never failed me, fire was my element and it couldn't hurt me, and I wasn't about to let some overgrown lizard with a head cold intimidate me.

Suddenly the dragon slid right in front of me and bent its head down, looking me in the eye. I jumped at the sudden movement and it blinked.

"Are you a princess?" it asked, it's voice rather low, humming and vaguely musical.

Well there was no need to be insulting! "No. I'm a fire-witch, and if you bite me, I'll burn your nose off." I added, just in case it got any ideas

"Oh. I thought you were a princess." The dragon turned away, sounding distinctly disheartened, and noticed Daystar.

He bowed calmly. "Sir or madam," he said formally, "I offer you greetings in the name of myself and my companions, and I wish you good fortune in all your endeavors."

"I beg your pardon?" said the dragon, squinting over at him "Are you a princess?"

"I-" That seemed to get to him. I grinned, the idea of Daystar in one of those ridiculous fancy dresses was just too amusing. Daystar didn't seem to like the idea of being mistaken for a simpering royal beauty. But he pulled himself together admirably

"I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not a princess. My Name is Daystar, and I'm very pleased to meet you."

The dragon sat down dejectedly. "I had no idea princesses were so hard to find."

It blinked and glanced over at Daystar again. "I'm sorry I burned your bush, but I couldn't help it."

"Oh, please don't worry about it," Daystar said. "It really doesn't matter in the least." Considering it wasn't our bush and all

"It was the wizard," the dragon went on, dropping his voice as if it were some big secret. "I'm allergic to them. All dragons are."

I wondered how you could be allergic to a wizard.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Daystar said.

The dragon looked at him. "You're very polite, Daystar." It turned back to me suddenly. "Say-you weren't polite at all!"

Nightwitch poked her head out from behind Shiara's ankle and hissed.

"Well we don't think much of your's you sneezing idiot! At least she's not stupid enough to go asking male humans if they're princess, you overgrown lizard."

The dragon bristled and then peered down at her. "You aren't polite, either," it muttered, darkly.

Daystar nudged me. "Offer to do something for him," I hissed.

"What? Why?"

"If you insult a dragon, you have to do him a favor," he said, his voice rising in volume. "Hurry up!"

The dragon, heard. Its eyes glittered and it turned to me expectantly. I _really_ didn't want to give in, it had been insulting first and I didn't see any reason why I should apologize much less offer to do it any favors. Still, it would probably go for Nightwitch first and I didn't want my kitten getting hurt, and then Daystar would jump in and try to be all heroic and I'd already gotten him burned once.

"Can I do anything for you?" I muttered , no one said I had to be happy about offering

"Find me a princess," the dragon said immediately

"You want a princess?" I glanced up at him. It was definitely something I could do, and it might just kill two birds with one stone. Provided he didn't actually kill her…and eat her. Though really I couldn't think of any other use, princesses didn't do much besides crying, fainting, and getting heroes to do stupid things. "Why?" I asked, finally.

"Dragons are supposed to have princesses," the dragon explained. "I can't be considered a proper dragon until I have one. But I've been looking for two days, and I haven't seen even a smell of a princess, and I'm tired of it. So you do it."

"You aren't going to eat her or anything, are you?" I clarified, just to make sure.

"Eat her?" The dragon gasped. "And waste a perfectly good princess? Of course not! There aren't enough of them to go around as it is. What kind of barbarian do you think I am?"

"Well, I've never met a dragon before, how was I supposed to know? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." I added, trying to be diplomatic

"All right," said the dragon. "But you have to get me a princess. It doesn't have to be a large one."

"Do you want any particular kind of princess?" I asked. "I want to be sure you'll be satisfied."

"Oh, young and beautiful, of course," the dragon said. "Are there other kinds?"

"There are enchanted princesses," I pointed out. "Especially around here." If we went near one of the big quest sites I could probably give him any random rock and it'd turn out to be a princess.

The dragon blinked "That's right. Say, maybe that's why I haven't found one!"

"I wouldn't be surprised," I told him. "But will you take an enchanted princess?"

The dragon considered. "No, I don't think so. Spells make things too complicated."

No this wouldn't be complicated at all. The princess would have a nice strong dragon to look after her until her knight, or a suitably attractive and wealthy prince came to rescue her. And Daystar and I would be free to continue on the great sword adventure without a weeping fainting nuisance holding us back.

"And does it matter how long it takes me to find her?" I asked.

The dragon thought about that for a moment. "I don't want to wait too long, but I really don't want to be unreasonable, either. How about a week? You bring the princess here by a week from today, otherwise you owe me another favor."

It licked its lips appreciatively. It would have been pretty disconcerting if I didn't already have a princess all lined up.

"That sounds reasonable," I told it. "But what if I'm early?"

"The earlier the better," the dragon said.

"Then, there's your princess!" I said and pointed at the passed out Princess

"My, you do work fast," the dragon said. It turned and looked at the Princess itself. "She's certainly beautiful enough, but are you sure she isn't enchanted?"

"I'm quite sure."

"Then why is she asleep in the middle of the day? I didn't think princesses were nocturnal creatures."

"She just fainted when she saw you," I assured him. "It's nothing to worry about. It happens to princesses all the time. Will she do?"

"Quite well." The dragon nodded. "You're very prompt. Thank you very much."

I nodded back officaially, glad that was settled. But as soon as the dragon turned Daystar scowled at me.

"Why did you do that?" he whispered "That was a terrible thing to do!"

"Would you rather I got eaten?" I shot back just as quietly back. "She won't get eaten. The dragon said so. And I bet it won't want her for long." In fact I gave Her Royal Faintness two weeks maximum before the dragon pawned her off on someone younger and stupider, or just tossed her at a passing knight. "Dragons are smarter than some people."

Daystar blinked and turned quickly back to the dragon.

"And that dragon thought _he_ was a princess." Nightwitch snickered.

I grinned and turned to watch as the Princess opened her eyes to see a dragon peering down at her. She gave a little gasping shrieked, and the dragon frowned.

"You don't have to be frightened," it said. "Really. You're my princess now, and I'm going to take proper care of you, and you can clean my scales and cook for me. I believe that's the standard arrangement."

The Princess burst into tears and I mentally subtracted two days off the princess's expected time with the dragon. The dragon reared back, eyeing her uncomfortably. "Did I say something wrong?"

The Princess began truly weeping. "Alas! Ah, woe is me! So recently was I happy, awaiting the coming of my love to rescue me from this dismal forest! And now am I a prisoner of a monster, and when my love arrives he will be eaten by this awful beast, and I abandoned to my fate! Alas, that I should come to this!" And subtract another two.

The dragon seemed shocked. It turned back to me. "This is a princess?" It asked, unsure.

"Yes, she is," Daystar said. I nodded, as well.

The question had gotten through the Princess's wailing. She raised her head and sniffed.

"Indeed, I am a princess, and the daughter of a king, and see to what misery I have been brought!" she said tragically. "Alas, the day I left my father's house! Yet would I flee again, and endure with patience all the trials and woes which have come upon me, only to be with my love once more!"

The dragon backed away from her. Subtract a day and a half. "Are you sure this is a princess?" As if hoping we'd say no.

"Alas! Now even my birth is doubted, and to whom shall I turn in my distress? Ah, pity my sad state! For I am alone and friendless, and parted from my love. Ah, woe! That ever I let him leave my side! For he is mighty among men, most brave and fearsome in battle, and of a fair and pleasing appearance in all things, and he would not leave me thus, did he but know my fate." And went back to incoherent wailing.

"If this is a princess, I'm not sure I want one after all," the dragon said. Bingo

It looked at the Princess speculatively. "Maybe I could eat her instead."

"Ah, help!" said the Princess. For once a rather logical reaction.

"I really don't think you should eat her," Daystar said, hastily. "After all, you did say you wouldn't."

"That's right, I did." The dragon glanced back at the weeping Princess, and sighed. "Nobody told me princesses were like this," it moaned. "And who is this love she keeps talking about?"

"We haven't met him yet, I'm afraid," Daystar said. "She says he's a knight that she ran away with because her father wanted her to marry someone else."

"A knight?" The dragon backed up even farther. "I don't think I'm ready for knights yet. They're so unpredictable. I don't suppose you could find me a princess without a knight?"

Well as long as we were going down the 'make the dragon not want a Princess" track, might as well do it properly.

"All really good princesses have knights," I said firmly. "And you wouldn't want a second-rate princess, would you?"

"All of them?" the dragon asked mournfully.

"Well, not all of them," Daystar said. "Some of them have princes instead."

I suppressed a grin. "Princes are much worse than knights," I said, as if considering. "They have magic rings and sorceresses for godmothers and things like that. With knights you only have to worry about their armor and weapons, and maybe once in a while an enchanted sword."

They actually did, we normally got heroes, but the occasional prince passing by my town was normally much better armed, magically speaking.

"My love has no need of magic!" the Princess protested indignantly, as if that was the important part of this whole conversation. "For he is most strong and skilled, and never has he been beaten in combat with sword or spear. Woe that he is no longer at my side!"

"I don't like the sound of this," the dragon said uneasily. "Maybe if I just-" A loud crash interrupted him and a tinny-sounding voice sounded from the bushes at the edge of the clearing

"What ho! A dragon?"

The Princess's tears magically vanished and she started posing herself.

"Hark! My love approaches! Now shall you see his prowess for yourselves!"

More crashes came out of the bushes and the dragon backed up nervously. Then a knight in a dented suit of armor fell gracelessly out of bushes, right at the dragon's feet.

"On guard, monster!" the knight said picking himself up hastily. "Prepare to die!" He pulled out a rather unimpressive sword and waved it vaguely in the general direction of dragon.

The dragon looked at him, and then back at me.

"This is a knight?" it asked.

"My love is the bravest and best of knights!" the Princess cried. SDomehow I doubted that, and I thought it gave the dragon the wrong impression.

"If this is a knight, maybe I can handle him after all," the dragon said. "He doesn't look so bad."

"Ah, hideous reptile! No longer do I fear you, for my love will defend me! Yea, he will defend me even unto death!"

"Now, wait a minute, Isabelle," the knight said. He pulled off his helmet, glared at it, and threw the dented can on the ground behind him.

"I'm perfectly willing to kill dragons for you, but who said anything about dying?"

"You are my knight, and my brave love!" the Princess said wallowing in the drama "Oh, save me from this awful monster, who would carry me off and eat me!" She jumped up and threw her arms around the knight.

The knight looked slightly awkward "It's going to be a bit difficult for me to save you if you hang about my neck like that. It's quite awkward." He apologized to her " If you'll just sit down, I can see about doing this properly."

The Princess just latched on tighter, so the knight had to turn and wiggle uncomfortably to get his arms free to fight and maneuver the Princess somewhat behind him. Her arms were still around his neck and I figured she had to be cutting off some of his air supply.

The dragon watched the farce with steadily brightening eyes. "You certainly aren't very polite," it said.

"My love is the soul of courtesy!" the Princess cried from behind the knight. "For he is a knight most gentle and well spoken, much given to-"

"I say, Isabelle, must you go on like that?" the knight said in a slightly strangled gasp ."It's embarrassing. Do, please, sit down and let me fight the dragon. Then you won't have to worry about being eaten, you know."

The Princess gave a small scream and let go of her beloved knight to bring her hands to her face.. "Alas? she warbled "Behold my sad state! For now must I watch a bloody battle, and perhaps see my love slain before my eyes, and become a captive of this monster."

"This is ridiculous," I said. I marched over to stop the dragon who didn't want the Princess at all from killing the metal clad idiot who could get rid of the nuisance. Daystar followed looking worried.

"Ah, save me!" the Princess shrieked, as soon as we got close.

I'd already done that, and now she was screwing it up, if she hadn't made such a big deal about how the dragon had previously wanted to carry her off, we wouldn't be in this mess.

"You shut up," I told her with a glare. "You've caused enough trouble already."

"I say," said the knight. "If we're going to discuss politeness-"

"We aren't," I snapped "We're going to discuss battles. Battles between dragons and knights. Why do you want to fight this dragon?"

"Knights are sworn to do battle with the beasts that ravage the fields, carry off innocent maidens, and generally make a nuisance of themselves," the knight rattled off, as if reading it from some stupid text book. The Princess nodded approvingly.

"Well, this dragon isn't ravaging anything, and it doesn't even want your stupid princess," I pointed out.

"I do, too!" the dragon broke in. "If I'm not going to carry her off I could eat her, after all. And if I fought a knight no one could say I'm not a proper dragon, even if I don't have a princess."

"I really don't think that's a good idea," Daystar said. "Princesses aren't all that common, after all."

"Besides, you promised me you wouldn't," I added.

"I did not!" the dragon said. "I only said I wouldn't waste a perfectly good princess, and this one's not so great. Eating her wouldn't be much of a waste."

Well he had a point.

"I don't think that would be very polite," Daystar said, definitely. "Especially when you've talked to her this long without bringing it up. You really ought to ease into these things gradually, you know."

"Are you sure?" the dragon asked.

I wasn't but, Daystar nodded and the dragon seemed to give up.

"Oh, all right," it muttered "I won't eat her, then. But couldn't I fight the knight anyway? Just for practice?" It glanced up hopefully.

The knight was all for it. "I say, that sounds like an excellent idea," heexclaimed."A sort of exercise for both of us."

"A tourney!" the Princess cried, almost as happy as her knight. "Oh, brave and clever, to think of such a thing!"

The knight basked in the attention.

The dragon looked pleased, and nodded. Then it rounded on me. "What's a tourney?" it whispered

"It's like a battle, only no one gets hurt. Usually..."

"Not even a little?" it sounded disappointed

"Of course not? I told him. "It's a show of skill." And we didn't want the knight too hurt to take the Princess far, far away.

"If you were trying to hurt each other, it wouldn't be a tourney," Daystar said, though he looked vaguely skeptical about the whole thing.

"Oh, all right, then," the dragon grumbled. "I don't know why I'm letting you talk me into this. How do we start?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

I actually knew very little about tourneys besides from the explanation I'd given the dragon. Daystar wasn't particularly eager to talk about what he knew and the Princess only talked about who was at the tourneys she'd been to rather than what they actually did, so I was pretty much making rules up on the fly. It didn't really matter anyway because I had to keep changing _them_ to try to get the dragon and knight to agree to anything.

And whenever the Princess opened her mouth, the dragon would start to wonder why he couldn't just bite the knight and then Daystar and I would have to explain the whole "no one gets hurt concept" while the Princess sobbed in the background. Then as soon as we got that all settled she'd start talking about tourneys and it would start all over again

In the end I just snarled at her to shut up and she started complaining about me, which gave the dragon less ideas and they eventually agreed on the rules.

I sent both of them off to opposite sides of the clearing to stretch out while Daystar, Nightwitch, and I drew a circle for the fight, which the knight had insisted was absolutely necessary. Meaning we had to sketch out a circle big enough to give a twelve foot tall dragon room to move in. I tried to put the circle protection spell that Morwen had taught me into the circle so that none of us spectators would actually get hit by dragon magic or fire. However, I'm not sure it took since by the time we finished drawing the circle, the moss had grown over our initial lines.

Stupid magical forests.

"Are you sure you have to have a circle to fight?" I asked the knight, pointing at the moss that was slowly covering all our hard work.

"I really do think so," the knight replied. "It wouldn't be a proper tourney without it, don't you see." He sounded somewhat sorry but apparently not sorry enough to forego the circle

"I'm sick of proper dragons and proper princesses and proper tourneys," I muttered Night witch agreed whole heartedly waving her dirty paws in the air mournfully. But the knight and the dragon offered to help and we redrew the circle with wider lines in a fairly short amount of time. The Princess sat under a tree and did nothing.

Once the circle was finished the knight and the dragon stepped inside and stared at each other, formally.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" I demanded.

"Someone has to say, 'go,'" the knight said.

Why? They both knew they were there to fight, why not just attack each other once they got in the circle?

"Go!" Daystar shouted next to me.

I shot him a look, but then the match started, and I was busy making sure the combatants didn't kill each other. They were actually pretty equal. I'd expected the dragon to make mincemeat out of the clumsy knight but it looked to be the dragons first fight ever. The knight was more sure of what he was supposed to do, they only managed to hit each other at all once every four swings and even those didn't look like they hurt much.

They probably would have gone on fumbling awkwardly about except a tree suddenly sprouted up out of nowhere and hit the dragon in the nose.

It fell back, its tail flailed about wildly trying to balance, and it nearly clubbed Nightwitch.

"Hey, watch out!" I yelled.

The dragon jumped turned quickly, its tail swung wide. The knight wasn't as quick as Nightwitch and the tail hit him on his chest plate. The dragon yelped, the metal dented visibly and the knight when flying a few feet back, landing in the pool Daystar's sword had created and sinking into the water.

The Princess screamed and raced into the water, searching frantically. By the time Daystar and I reached her she'd gotten his head mostly above water and was trying to pull him out. There was no way that she'd really be able to lift a water logged knight in full armor but that didn't stop her from trying. We waded in and added out efforts to her desperate tugs and together managed to get him onto semi-dry land.

The Princess checked to make sure he was alive, and then she burst into tears.

"Alas! See now how sad is my fate! For my love has been grievously injured and I am without protection in this awful place. Ah, woe is me!"

"Is he dead?" asked the dragon asked, peering over Daystar's shoulder.

"Monster!" cried the Princess, though personally I thought it was a perfectly reasonable question considering her reaction. "Your base attempt to slay my love has failed! No second chance shall you have to harm him while I can stand between you! For if my love be slain, I care not whether I live or die, and thus I now defy you." She threw herself across the knight's chest dramatically.

The knight coughed, moaned, and opened his eyes. "I say, Isabelle," he said weakly, "that really is a bit uncomfortable."

The Princess sat up and started weeping all over his face, which probably wasn't very comfortable for a man who'd almost drowned.

"That was a very good fight," the dragon said peering. "Except for the last part. My tail still stings. I think I may have sprained it. Is armor always that hard?"

The knight tried to answer and started coughing instead. The Princess cried harder.

"I don't think all that water is doing him much good." I snapped.

Then the Princess surprised me, she stopped crying and glared up at me. Then she turned back to her knight dry-eyed and tragic-looking.

The knight finished coughing and wheezed, "I do believe I agree with you about the fight. That trick with the tail is quite good. I don't recall seeing it before. I really must remember it."

"Actually, it was something of an accident," the dragon said modestly. "But I think I could do it again if I tried. Did you really think it was good?"

"Oh, quite," the knight said. "I think perhaps you broke one or two of my ribs." As if that comforted anyone.

"I'm sorry," said the dragon. "Is that bad?"

"It is certainly a bit uncomfortable," the knight said. "I don't really blame-" A coughing spasm interrupted him. The Princess looked alarmed, but she didn't start spouting off over-the-top speeches or burst into weeping. Her hands fluttered about, not dramatically but as if she was trying to think of something she could do to help, and she actually looked concerned. I blinked, I thought she'd been freaking out over the knight because that was how princess's were supposed to act when their handsome knights got wounded. But an actual desire to help wasn't traditional… she actually cared about him.

"You should get the armor off him, Morwen always makes a fuss about how wet clothes will cause colds." Nightwitch said and sprang up onto the knight's chest apparently looking for straps.

"What is this? Go hence, and leave my love in peace!" cried the Princess, reaching forward.

"You let my kitten alone," I warned.

The Princess stopped and looked me in the eyes. "And shall I neglect aught that may bring comfort to my love in his hurt?" she said.

"Nightwitch isn't going to hurt-" I started, then my mind mentally translated what she said from ye olde princesse. 'I have to do something for him and this is all I can do. Can't I at least do that? ' I couldn't snap at her for that, even if the idea of a kitten hurting a fully armored knight was ridiculous. If it made her feel better. "I guess it doesn't matter. Go ahead." Though if she hurt my cat I'd flatten her.

Nightwitch was not happy to be moved, as she was convinced she could have solved the problem all by herself, so the Princess earned quite a few scratches for her pains, but she managed to get Nightwitch away from her knight fairly gently. The coughing had subsided mostly but he was wheezing and it looked like breathing was painful.

"You don't sound very good," I informed him.

"If you can't fix him, can I eat him?" the dragon asked hopefully.

"No" cried the Princess. The knight started coughing again. And Nightwitch hissed.

"No! I can fix him! And if you interfere with one of my patients I will…"

"Of course not," I told him, trying to calm my cat. "You promised."

"It wouldn't be polite," Daystar added. "After all, that was why you had the tourney."

The dragon looked hurt. "I was just asking."

"Ah, what are we going to do about them?" Daystar "They can't stay here, not when the knight's been injured like that."

"It's not so bad, really it isn't," the knight said, and then started coughing again immediately. It didn't last as long as the other coughing fits but it still wasn't convincing.

"I suppose you could come with us," Daystar said. I could feel the blood drain from my face. Traveling with romantic gush princess and her proper knight, that was even worse than just the princess. Even if the knight healed up enough to help fight, the two of them together...they'd be sickening.

"Kill me now" Nightwitch muttered.

"That's frightfully kind of you," the knight said. "Very kind, to invite us to come with you. All of you?" He added uncertainly.

"I don't know," Daystar said. "I haven't asked the dragon about its plans yet. But you're quite welcome to join us, if you want to."

"Yes," I said with only a little sarcasm "I'm sure you'll be very useful when the wizard comes back." I stared at Daystar, trying to remind him that we did have an entire society of wizards after us and anyone who happened to travel with us.

"Wizard?" said the knight, with an alarmed almost-cough. "What wizard?"

"Well, actually, there are several of them," Daystar said, honestly. "Every now and then one of them shows up and tries to do something to us. The last one left when the dragon showed up."

"I'm sure he'll be back in a little while," I added. "Or one of the others will They've been chasing us all over the Enchanted Forest."

"You know," the knight said, "I really don't believe it would be a good idea for me to join you. I should almost certainly be a bit of an inconvenience, you see. Wet armor rusts, and with that and the ribs I'm afraid I'd be a little slow. Thank you terribly, all the same."

"If you don't come with us, what will you do?" Daystar asked.

"Morwen's," suggested Nightwitch.

"Morwen!" I translated excitedly. "They can go to Morwen! She'll know what to do for them."

Nightwitch started purring loudly, "Aren't you lucky to have such a brilliant and helpful familiar?"

"It sounds like a good idea, but will she want to?" Daystar asked.

"Morwen seems to like helping people," I told him. "And I'm sure she can take care of both of them."

"You know Morwen?" said the dragon. "I like her. She gives me apples out of her garden."

I envied the dragon, my neighbors weren't as generous with their apples. The Prince of the Ruby Throne never even picked any of his, but the one time I tried to grab some a flying snake attacked me, I broke my arm falling out of the tree, and then the Prince was pointedly rude anytime he came near me.

The Princess's voice brought me back to the present "Who is this Morwen?" she asked. "Think you that she could help my love, indeed?"

"Morwen's sort of a friend of ours," Daystar explained. "She lives back that way, with a lot of cats, and her house has kind of a strange door."

What was his problem with the door?

"I didn't have any trouble with it," I said. "And she has nine cats. She told me while you were asleep."

"Nine cats?" said the Princess, looking puzzled. "But what has that to do with my love, who is so grievously hurt?"

"I said it wasn't that bad, Isabelle," the knight wheezed uncomfortably. "Really, I wish you wouldn't make such a fuss. I shall be quite all right in a little, I'm sure."

"If this woman with the many cats can help you, then we shall go to her," the Princess declared. "For you are my love, and I will have you whole and well." She actually sounded pretty determined

"Oh, but really, Isabelle-"

"I'm sure Morwen won't mind," I interrupted. "She fixed Daystar up just fine. She's even good with wet swords." Since that seemed to be the main thing guys with swords cared about

Sure enough the knight brightened up instantly. "Are you quite sure? Because I'm frightfully wet, sword and armor and everything, and it would be very nice if I could keep it all from rusting. It's rather expensive, you see."

"I'm sure she could manage that," I told him. "Of course, you don't have to go. You could stay here and wait for the wizard to come back."

That got him downright eager to leave. Though unfortunately with all that settled the Princess reverted back to talking about how wonderful her knight was, which perked the knight up even more.

I hurriedly checked with Nightwitch, and together with Daystar and my memory of the trip we put together pretty good directions of how to get back to Morwen's house. We repeated these a few times to the Princess and the knight, who after listening to his praises for an hour seemed pretty chipper, and sent them on their way.

It wasn't until they were out of sight that I let out a breath. "That's a relief!" I muttered. "For a while I thought you were going to make us go with that stupid princess. It was bad enough having to listen to her here without following her around."

Daystar blinked. "But I thought you changed your mind about her! You were being a lot nicer to her after the knight got hurt."

I snorted. "So I feel sorry for her. She really cares about that klutz in the tin can. I could tell. That doesn't mean I like her! I still think she's dumber than you are, but I'm glad they're going to see Morwen."

Daystar just shook his head and turned away.

"Why do you have wizards chasing you?" asked the dragon.

"It's a long story," I said. "I'll be glad to explain, but you might want to make yourself comfortable first."

The dragon sighed. "Have you ever tried to be comfortable with a sprained tail?"

I giggled at the image, and the refreshing non-politeness. The dragon tried several, increasingly strange positions then settled itself, curled around the little tree that had hit it in the nose.

"That's better," it said. "Enchanted trees are always more comfortable than regular ones."

"Enchanted trees?" I asked, suddenly imaging wizards lurking in the shadows.

"Of course," the dragon said. "What else do you expect to find in an enchanted forest?" I felt slightly embarrassed but the dragon didn't seem to notice "I'm going to have to remember to tell someone about this, though. There haven't been any new ones in a long time. You were going to tell me about the wizards," said the dragon.

Daystar explained about The Sword and Antorell and why the wizards were after him, then after glancing at me, explained why the wizards were after me. And then he explained what had gone on since we met up. The dragon listened intently, several times its tail twitched, painfully, in excitement.

"That's very interesting," the dragon said when Daystar finished. "Where are you going now?"

"Morwen told us to follow the stream," I told him. "And Suz said we should go talk to someone named Kazul."

"It's the same thing," the dragon said.

"What do you mean?" Daystar asked asked.

"The stream goes to the castle, and Kazul lives right outside it. I wonder why she wants to see you?"

"What castle?" I asked, already prepared for another round of vague non-answers. "And who is this Kazul person, anyway?"

"It must have something to do with that sword," the dragon said, ignoring me "Especially if it really does belong to the Sleeping King."

"You mean you know something about it?" I demanded. "Well, then, tell us what the stupid thing does?"

The dragon looked sheepish, which was in and of itself a very strange sight. "I don't know. I'm not old enough yet," it said.

"Not old enough?" I had a sudden image of how much bigger a full grown dragon must be.

"That's why I wanted a princess," the dragon said. "Otherwise, Kazul won't tell me anything important until I'm two hundred. She says that before then dragons are irresponsible, unwise, and talk too much." It looked faintly indignant. "I don't talk too much."

I had to restrain myself from bursting out in more giggles though I'll admit there was a faint edge of hysteria to it.

"Who is Kazul?" Daystar asked nervously.

"Oh, I thought you knew," the dragon said. "Kazul is the King of the Dragons."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Daystar and I looked at each other.

We were going to go see the most powerful, from what Suz had said, fairly temperamental, full-grown dragon in the land. I suddenly missed vague, cryptic answers.

"Terrific," I said, finally. "And I thought wizards were bad." At least you only had to worry about their magic, for dragons we'd have to worry about magic, claws, teeth, and fire. And they were sticklers for politeness.

"Did I say something wrong?" the dragon asked.

"No, not at all," Daystar replied quickly. "We were just a little surprised, that's all."

Yeah, wouldn't do to insult his monarch. A thought struck me.

"Hey!" I asked. "How can Kazul be King of the Dragons if she's a she? That doesn't make sense."

"It does too!" the dragon said. "What else would you call her?"

"How about Queen?" I suggested sarcastically.

"Queen?" The dragon wrinkled its nose. "Why would you want to call her Queen? That's not the same thing at all! You're the one who doesn't make sense."

My temper frayed a little at the edges. "I do too make sense!" I insisted. "Queens do the same things Kings do."

"Not for dragons," Daystar hastily and gave me a vaguely pleading look. "Dragons have a king, period. The King of the Dragons is whichever dragon can move Colin's Stone from the Vanishing Mountain to the Ford of the Whispering Snakes. It doesn't matter whether the dragon is male or female."

"It's silly to have two names for the same job," the dragon said smugly. "People get confused."

"Oh." I suppose it made a kind of sense and since Daystar was still giving me the 'please drop it' look, I let the subject drop.

There was a moment of silence, then I turned to Daystar.

"Daystar," I asked, "why are we looking for the King of the Dragons?" Hoping that there'd be a good logical, reason.

He opened his mouth, closed it again, then seemed to think about it.

"I don't know," he said finally. "But I think we have to. At least, I have to."

I sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say something like that."

The dragon looked confused. "What's the matter? It doesn't sound particularly unusual to me, but I suppose it'll be at least as interesting as running away to find a princess."

Daystar and I glanced at each other and then back at the dragon again.

"You ran away?" I asked.

"It was the only way I could think of to get a princess." The dragon sighed. "It didn't work out the way I thought it would, though."

Daystar and I glance at each other, we seemed to be doing that a lot lately. We were going to see the King of Dragons with a runaway dragon.

"You're sure you really want to come?" Daystar asked finally "I mean, there are wizards after us, and it might be a little inconvenient if they showed up again. And I doubt that we'll run into any more princesses." I nearly grinned, Daystar was learning.

The dragon thought a moment, then it shook its head. "I'm coming with you, wizards or no wizards," it decided."Sneezing isn't so bad."

"We'd better go, then," Daystar sighed. "I'm sure Antorell will be back as soon as he thinks it's safe, and I'd sort of like to be gone by then."

"Well at least it won't be as useless as that princess." Nightwitch muttered "Dragons can actually fight stuff."

I snorted, grabbed a bundle and shoved the other one at him. "You're absolutely right. Here. Let's go." Before Daystar tried to bring someone else into our merry little band.

We started off towards the stream. "Not that way!" said the dragon. "It takes too long."

"How else are we going to find the stupid castle?" I snapped. "We don't even know what it looks like"

"I do. And I'm very good at shortcuts." The dragon said smugly

Daystar looked doubtful "Morwen told us to follow the stream."

"Morwen didn't know you were going to meet me." The dragon stared blankly. "I thought you were in a hurry."

"Well he is a _dragon_ after all" Nightwitch said, "he ought to know how to get back home." I looked at her. "The more time you take the more likely the wizards come after you."

"Come on, Daystar," I called. "I don't care which way we go, but let's go!"

So we followed the dragon.

Travelling is much easier with a twelve foot tall reptile with sharp teeth. We had an early warning system for wizards and nothing tried to bother us. Even at night there were far fewer ominous noises nearby. Personally I'd like to imagine that was because I did some more experiments with the protection spells but more likely it was the dragon.

We didn't even have to worry about food since the magic in Morwen's bundles had turned the leftovers from lunch into a fresh packet of food that contained enough to fill up everyone in our newly expanded little band.

I was actually feeling fairly safe walking through the forest the nest morning, when I noticed Daystar eyeing the trees, suspiciously.

"What's the matter, Daystar?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "But I feel as if I'm being watched."

"Watched?" I glanced through the trees quickly. "Who's watching us?"

"I don't know," he said. "I'm not even sure someone is. I just feel uncomfortable."

"You're being a little slow," the called the dragon, and the conversation ended with us puny humans racing to catch up with his dragon sized footsteps.

I found myself trying to sense any magic ahead and then shook myself. "There's nothing there." I muttered.

"I don't know, he might be right" Nightwitch said, trotting up beside me. "That's what always happens in the scary stories, the venturing band will be walking through the forest and get an odd feeling that they'll eventually ignore and then something big and scary will leap out at them."

"There isn't anything scary, we haven't even run into wild animals."

"Another sign," the kitten actually seemed pleased, "we animals have sensed some big dangerous creature and all run away."

"A big dangerous creature...like say a dragon"

"No, no" she muttered impatiently "something bigger…" her voice trailed off at the end, she blinked, then she siddled closer to me.

"What?"

"Nothing just thought I smelled something." She didn't want to talk about it anymore, just stayed close to me. That was enough to put me officially on edge, I started scanning the shadows, expecting some horrible nightmare creature to leap out and kill us all.

When the dragon stopped suddenly, with a short shout I almost jumped out of my skin. Then we all ran forward, expecting to find him in the middle of fighting the horrible monster. Instead, it was sitting on the ground, rubbing his nose and glaring at the air in front of him.

"What happened?" Daystar called.

"I ran into something," the dragon said, turning his glare onto Daystar.

"But there isn't anything-" I started, waving my hand in the air, when it suddenly smacked against a solid something. "Ow!" I blinked, rubbing my fingers. An invisible solid in the air… had to be connected to more, didn't it? I put my hand out more slowly until it touched the invisible surface, it was smooth and flat and cool. I concentrated slightly, trying to remember Morwen's spell for seeing spells, wondering how on earth such a spell would work and I suddenly felt the energy of the spell thrumming beneath my fingers, humming around the structure.

"I don't like this" Nightwich hissed, backing away "there's something bad about whoever lives there."

Daystar reached out next to me. "It's an invisible wall," he said.

"No, it's an invisible castle," I told him automatically, then I realized what I said and blinked. "Hey! How do I know that?"

"I don't know, when did you figure it out?" he asked.

"I didn't! I was just standing here, wanting to know what it was, and all of a sudden I did."

"That sounds like fire magic!" he grinned.

"I don't care what it is," the dragon muttered. "I want to know where it came from. It wasn't here last time I came this way."

"No, I mean what Shiara did sounds like fire magic."

"Really?" The dragon gave me a rather flat look. "Then use your fire magic to find out what this invisible thing is doing in the middle of my shortcut."

I didn't really even know how I'd done it, there was a difference between tracing energy paths of the spell, technical details, and finding out the motivations behind the spell. I put my hand out into the air again and focused on the energy paths, tracing them back to the source.

"It's an invisible castle, all right. Hey, I even know how to do it!"

"Do what?" asked the dragon. "Put your hand on a castle?"

"No, no, how to make things invisible," I murmured, only half paying attention. It wasn't terribly hard, a rather elegant spell that fed back on itself to keep the spell going as long as it had plenty of energy. It's rather strange energy…

"You figured or out how to turn a castle invisible just by touching it?" Daystar said, sounding astonished.

"No, you have to do a lot of other things to it." They were there in the spell, a motion here, a stone model there, little pins holding the random swirling energy in a recognizable pattern. All spreading out from the initial source, of… death. More than that, pain. Lots of pain , from lots of people going through long hours of suffering the knives. Trying to make themselves small enough that she wouldn't notice them, wouldn't hurt them. Until they retreated into nothingness, somewhere far away from the pain and the horrible soulless, grey eyes. Where they barely felt the flames. And then they didn't feel.

I made a noise, or at least I think I did and yanked myself free of the spells or memories or whatever that had been. I tried to swallow.

"Let's leave, Daystar." I whispered hoarsely "I don't think I want to meet anyone who would live in an invisible castle."

He looked at me and something in my expression must have clued him off to how bad it was. He gulped. "All right, let's go."

The dragon complained, I could hear him somewhere far away. Why was he talking we had to go! I thought. We had to get away! Before she got back.

"Oh, all right." I heard "But I don't see what all the fuss is about."

Then a woman appeared in front of the invisible castle, practically vibrating with firey power. She was tall with deeply red hair and soulless grey eyes.

I shouted a warning, yelling at them to run.

Then my body froze. "Oh no, my dear" the witch purred in my ear "I'd like to get to know you're interesting little friends _much _better. You however, can wait"

I would have snarled but my face wasn't co-operating. Rage rose up inside me with a roar of flames. And then the world went black.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

The next thing I felt was warm lips on mine, which considering the context was both confusing and creepy as anything. I jerked back and was shocked to see Daystar in front of me, blushing. "Hey! Daystar, what on earth do you think you're doing?"

"It worked!" he cried nonsensically, and smiled.

I glared at him completely confused. The witch had disappeared and for some reason this idiot had kissed me.

"What worked?" I demanded, confused and embarrassed and still a little terrified. "And where did that witch go? She was here a minute ago."

"You were a statue," the dragon supplied. "The fire-witch did it, but Daystar got rid of her. I'm glad he did. I didn't like her. She wasn't polite at all, and she… and she . . ." it leaned in "And she grew dragonsbane!" it whispered.

I stared at him, still stuck on his first sentence. A fire-witch that, evil, soulless fiend who'd tortured people to death had been a fire-witch? All those people, the …

I was interrupted from that unpleasant realization by a familiar squeaky voice. "Help! Murder! Wild beasts and dangerous lunatics! Oh dear oh my help help goodness gracious help oh!"

Suz was rolled up in a little golden ball, was batting around with a look of utter fascination. As soon as Daystar grabbed Nightwitch the lizard uncoiled and whacked her on the nose with his tail. The kitten seemed to come back to reality and Daystar managed to get a firmer hold on her while she was still slightly dazed. She moved to scratch him then noticed me.

"Oh you're all right," She chirped "I mean you're moving around again. Well then that's okay." I petted her soothingly while Daystar attempted to calm Suz, who'd rolled himself back into a defensive ball. Probably not the best tactic to avoid getting batted around by a kitten but I wasn't about to kick the guy while he was down.

"It's all right now, Suz," Daystar said, comfortingly.

"You're quite certain?" the lizard said, poking his head out.

"Yes, of course," Daystar assured him.

"This sort of thing is quite unsettling,"Suz complained. "I do not approve at all. Dear me, no, not at all."

"I'm very sorry," Daystar said. "I'm afraid I didn't know she was there."

"People who keep wild animals ought to know where they are so they don't go around eating other people," the lizard sniffed, with a glare.

Daystar bent down which only brought Suz closer to the object of his ridiculous fears. "You keep that-that beast away from me!" Suz shouted

"Nightwitch isn't a wild animal, she's a kitten," I told him."And I don't believe she meant to eat you. She just wanted to play."

"No, I was going to make him make him tell me everything he knew so we could figure out how to turn you back." Nightwitch said indignantly "But as soon as I pounced at him he rolled into a ball, and then I got distracted."

I gave her a look, at that moment I didn't particularly like the idea of anyone, human or cat, using torture.

"She's too young to know better," an oblivious Daystar assured Suz. "Nightwitch, I mean." He added, glancing up at me, worriedly.

"She is?" The lizard peered at Nightwitch

"Yes, I suppose she is," he muttered. "How unfortunate. I really do think I had better leave. Dear me, yes, I really must." He nodded to himself and started scurrying off to the woods where it was safe. I felt bad for him, being rolled around like that couldn't have been fun.

"Suz, wait!" I called out.

He stopped and looked back at me nervously. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry Nightwitch scared you," I told him. She was my cat so it was partially my fault. And after all the apologies I had to make for nonsense I should at least apologize to the little guy for letting him be terrified.

"You are?" Suz ran back to stare at me, standing on his tail to get a closer view. "Why, you really are! How astonishing! How extraordinary! How extremely unexpected!"

Not exactly polite but, I didn't really make a habit of voluntarily apologizing to people.

"Suz?" Daystar asked."What's the best way to get to the castle where Kazul lives?"

"Why, it's-" Suz paused and glanced around. "Dear me, there seems to be an invisible castle in the way. How ridiculous. I'm afraid you'll just have to go around."

"That's what I thought," Daystar said. "But thank you anyway."

"It's quite all right. And I really must be going now, I really must. Good-bye." Suz bowed , then flipped and scurried back into the woods much more happily.

"And thank you for telling me how to change Shiara back!" he called.

"Oh, so he did tell" Nightwitch muttered. "I got a little distracted once I helped get rid of the evil witch"

Great, now she knew what had happened, the temporary statue would like some answers too though.

I fixed Daystar with a hard look "All right, Daystar, explain. What's all this about statues and getting rid of witches?"

"I already told you all that," the dragon said sullenly. "Why do you want him to tell you again?"

"Because I didn't understand it when you told it," I told it, practically. "And I want to know what's been going on."

I plopped down ground and stared up at Daystar. "So explain."

And he did. Apparently Daystar had tried to convince the evil witch to turn me back, but she'd simply decided to turn him into a statue. A rather predictable result of trying to negotiate with a completely evil witch, in my mind. So Nightwitch had attacked the witch under her skirts, distracting her long enough for Daystar to draw his sword. Then, the witch had warded off the dragon with dragonsbane, and attacked Daystar. The sword practically lit on fire, according to Daystar but it got rid of her. However, I was still a statue. While they debated what to do, Suz showed up and recommended the whole idea of kiss. Daystar's face got vaguely pink there and he glanced up at me quickly.

"You don't have to keep going," I said, trying to decide how I felt about that. "I remember that part."

"Oh. I'm sorry," His face was practically glowing. "But no one could think of anything else, and it did work."

I wasn't really listening. The wizard's magic hadn't really had to be undone, it had just disappeared, liked the wizard. But the fire-witch had burned up. My mind turned aside from the idea of the fire-witch, latching onto the magical theory in self-defense, desperate to think of anything else "Daystar, did your sword burn your hands when Antorell tried to throw that spell at you?" I asked.

"No," he said, sounding vaguely relieved. "It didn't do anything at all."

"It did, too!" I said, my mind racing. "It ate Antorell's spell. And it didn't do anything to you. Why didn't it work like that on the fire-witch's spell?"

"Who's Antorell?" the dragon interrupted

"The wizard you were sneezing at when we met," Daystar responded. "He's not very pleasant."

"Wizards aren't," it agreed.

"Daystar, this is important!" I said, feeling ideas coming together in my mind "Why didn't your sword work the same way on the fire-witch as it did on Antorell?"

"Fire-witches and wizards are different," Daystar said with a shrug. "It makes sense that the sword does different things to them. I wish it would get rid of Antorell, though. Then I could stop worrying about him."

"That's the point! Like the sword pulls in the essential magic and then spits it back out at whoever's attacking. Fire-witch magic is almost like fire, and it's not meant to handle that so that's why it heated up! It's meant to deal with wizard magic, meaning if you got it right you could.." I came back to myself and realized Daystar wasn't listening to me, he was staring off into the trees.

"Daystar?" I asked, wondering if I was even making sense at this point. The clarity, the magical theory broke up in my mind, and I was back in the real world.

"I'm all right," he said. "But can we get started and talk about this somewhere else? We still have to get to see Kazul, and there's an invisible castle in the way."

That sounded like a great idea. Only, there were still people in there, I'd felt them and as much as I hated the idea of setting foot in that horrible place, the idea of leaving people trapped there was even worse.

"Shouldn't we do something about the people she turned into statues for her garden?"

"Why?" asked the dragon.

"Because it wouldn't be right to just leave them there," Daystar said

We agreed to see if we could find a door or something, though I was almost positive any door would also have quite a few nasty traps attached.

But we couldn't even find the castle again. We searched the clearing, hands outstretched in front of us and found nothing.

"I don't understand," I muttered "Where did it go?"

"Maybe the fire-witch moved it while she was talking to me," Daystar suggested.

"A whole castle? That fast?" she was powerful, but that sort of thing would require concentration. "Besides, didn't Suz say it was still in the way? It must have moved since he left." A horrible thought struck me."Daystar, you don't think she could still be around, do you?"

"She isn't around anywhere," the dragon said positively. "She went up in smoke. I saw her."

"Good," I snarled.

Daystar, stared at me, utterly shocked. I glared at him, there was no way on earth I was apologizing for that "She deserved it. You don't know what she had to do to make that castle invisible."

"What was it?" the dragon asked.

I glared at him. "I don't want to talk about it." I just wanted to forget it.

"Why not?" said the dragon.

"Because she tortured people to death!" I shouted. "It was part of the spell, and I know how to do it, and I don't want to think about it!"

There was a moment of silence while the others processed that.

"I told you she wasn't a nice person," the dragon said, finally.

I snorted, the beginnings of a laugh or a sob I didn't know which. I grabbed Nightwitch and my bag and started walking, burying my face in the soft fur, while the kitten made little purring noises.

"The first person I ever meet who's like me and she's a complete monster." I muttered.

"Well then she's not like you." She said simply.

"I wish I could just forget this, I don't want to live with that in my head." To be a part of that knowledge. To have it show up in my nightmares.

Nightwitch looked at me silently and licked my face.

Daystar and the dragon followed silently at a discreet distance.

When I'd gotten myself under control, I fell back to join them and we traveled as a group again.

"You look a little strange," the dragon was telling Daystar. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't think so," he said, but he was scanning the shadows warily. "I just feel like someone's watching me."

"You're imagining things," I told him, in what I hoped sounded like a normal voice. "I've been looking since you told me about it this morning, and I haven't seen anyone."

"Someone's following us?" the dragon said. It blinked, then did its own slow scan of the trees. "You're right," it said finally. "Someone is following us. That's not polite."

Then its head shot out into the trees, faster than I've seen anything move in my life. There were some strange noises and then the dragon dragged an elf out of the woods.

An elf that looked startlingly like the one who had gotten Daystar hurt. I had a score to settle with that elf.

Nightwitch caught onto my mood, I'd told her the story of Daystar's hand. She eyed him with some interest. "He's like a giant rat" she said in wonder. Then she turned to Daystar "Can we kill him or do you want to do it?"

"I'm afraid he's too big for you," Daystar told her, though I was pretty sure he hadn't understood her. He'd have objected much more strongly.

"He certainly is!" yelled the elf. "Put me down! Let me down at once!"

"Mrof!" said the dragon, through a mouthful of the elf's trousers.

"I don't think he wants to," Daystar told the elf, casually. "Why were you following us?"

"Hey!" I snapped. "Are you the elf we ran into before? Because if you are, I want to talk to you."

The elf stopped struggling glanced down at me, then he glanced at the dragon.

"On the other hand, maybe I'm better off up here," he decided.

The dragon seemed offended "Mmnuf!" it said, shaking its head violently.

"Yow!" criedd the elf. "Help! I surrender!"

"Really?" I asked, with a certain amount of skepticism. I expected him to try to weasel his way out somehow, not just fold.

"Really!" said the elf. "Absolutely! Completely and without question. Will you put me down?"

"Maybe you should," Daystar told the dragon. "I don't think he can get away from all of us, and it will be a lot easier for you to talk."

The dragon considered, then slowly lowered its head to drop the elf in a heap in front of us. We made a circle around the elf, effectively cutting off all routes of escape while he lay there panting. Then he suddenly hopped up, bowed to everyone in the circle, and sat down again, looking completely alert.

"Now," he said, "what can I do for you?"


	13. Chapter 13

Okay: So there was that one discussion with Nightwitch again, that upon reading through a second time didn't seem to fit. I still want Shiara to have to think about the kiss and her feelings about it, but I think that's going to have to come later, when she has time to think about things. (Possibly when people *cough, Cimerone* start talking about how they would make such a cute couple)

**Chapter 13**

Not exactly the reaction we'd been expecting.

"What you can do" I told him "is answer some questions." Though considering the reactions of everyone else in the Enchanted Forest it wouldn't surprise me if there was some actual physical condition that prevented them from actually answering questions.

"My dear lady, I would be delighted," the elf said. "What do you want to know?" Apparently it wasn't a physical condition.

"Why were you following us?" the dragon growled.

"I thought she was asking the questions," the elf objected.

I thought he was just going to answer the questions.

"We're all asking questions," I snapped. "So you can just stop dodging and answer that one."

"What one?" the elf said, blinking innocently.

However the obliviously stupid act apparently didn't go over well with dragons. The elf barely managed to get his legs out of the way as the dragon's teeth came snapping down.

"Yes, ah, of course," he said, gleaming fangs doing wonders for his memory. "That question. I was, um, looking for information."

"Information? Ha!" I snorted, what a complete non-answer. "What kind of information?"

"Who you are, where you're going, and what you're going to do when you get there," the elf replied quickly, looking me straight in the eye. I was pretty sure it was too avoid looking at the dragon who was still displaying its teeth prominently.

"That's all?" I asked with a sarcastic smile. "It sounds a lot like what we want to know about you."

"How nice," the elf said, returning my smile with one bright enough to blind. "We have something in common."

I felt my smile slip into a snarl, fortunately, or unfortunately, Daystar interrupted before I could do anything…hasty.

"Excuse me," he said. "But who exactly are you?"

"I'm an elf." The elf said, unhelpfully.

Daystar was not fazed "I can see that," he said with his customary politeness. "But would you mind telling me your name? I mean, I'd sort of like to know to whom I'm speaking."

"My dear boy, I would be delighted."

Heard that one before, I thought.

But instead of evading the elf stood up and made a ridiculous bow. "My name," he said, "is Janril." He finished the bow with a flourish and sat down again.

"Pleased to meet you, Janril,"Daystar said, slipping into proper introduction mode. "This is Shiara, that's Nightwitch…" He looked at the dragon and seemed puzzled for a moment. What was the dragon's name anyway? When I actually thought about it, the dragon had never properly introduced itself , which struck me as rather hypocritical if dragons really were as fussy about politeness as Daystar seemed to think they were.

"This is a dragon-" Daystar, said, instead.

"Somehow I guessed," Janril muttered, and I felt my lips twitch in spite of myself.

"-and I'm Daystar," Daystar finished.

I frowned, wondering if it was a good idea to mention who he actually was, considering one: the wizards after us, two: the way the last elf had tried to kill him, and three: the quest we were on that everyone else in the forest seemed to know about.

Sure enough the elf leapt to his feet upon hearing the name. "Daystar! Not Cimorene's son? My dear boy, I can't tell you how glad I am you've finally come. It's about time things got straightened out a little."

Right, and he was just the one to conveniently help us. We'd seen the whole helpful elf act before and look where that had gotten us.

"I don't trust elves," I muttered. "And why should we listen to you, anyway?"

"My dear girl," Janril replied, shaking his head, "if you expect me to answer questions, you're going to have to listen to me, otherwise there's no point in it. Why don't you trust elves?"

I glared at him, in silence, the less he knew about us the better in my mind. Daystar glanced over at me questioningly, and I gave him a flat look in reply, effectively refusing to speak. Daystar tilted his head and gave me a look that told me that he thought I was being unfair and stubborn, I jerked my chin up and remained silent. Daystar shrugged and then told the elf everything that had happened regarding the other elf. Because apparently in all his studies of the Enchanted Forest Daystar never learned that the easiest way to make sure the suspicious people don't stab you in the back is not to give them lots of personal information.

"That makes your position entirely understandable." The elf said with a nod "I'm afraid you ran into one of the Darkmorning Elves. They're a rather disreputable lot. They've been running wild since the King disappeared, so of course they'd cause you trouble."

"Why 'of course?" I asked, since as far as I could see none of that connected to us. "And what king are you talking about?"

"The King of the Enchanted Forest," the elf said. "The Darkmorning Elves don't want him to come back. They like the way things have been run since he disappeared. Since you have his sword, of course they want to get rid of you. If they can," he seemed to think about that for a moment then shook himself back into the present. "Personally, I don't think they really know what they're doing."

"How do you know about Daystar's sword?" I demanded.

"My dear girl, everyone who lives in the Enchanted Forest knows something about the Vanished King's Sword," Janril said. Which seemed true enough, everyone except us that is. He seemed about to go on and give some useful information, but Daystar chose that moment to interrupt.

"Wait a minute." He said "I only have one sword, and I thought it was called the Sword of the Sleeping King."

I scowled, I for one had been perfectly fine with the idea of letting the elf go on thinking we had a different sword.

Apparently it didn't make a differene though because the elf just shrugged,"Sleeping, vanished, run away-what difference does it make? He's gone."

"I don't care about the sword," the dragon said . "I want to know why you were following us."

Janril's face scrunched up in an irritated frown. "My dear… ah… dragon," he said, "I told you already, I wanted to find out more about you. I believe that's the usual reason for following people around."

"But that doesn't explain anything," the dragon complained, undaunted by the evasion.

The elf had been quite good at slipping past that question before, and gotten us all spun up on another topic… almost as if he was hiding something or stalling for someone.

"All right, then," I demanded "why did you want to know more about us?" I gave him a hard stare and hoped I'd be able to tell if he was lying.

Janril, considered for a moment, his eyes flicked up to mine, then he grinned reluctantly. "Because I'm trying to find out what the Darkmorning Elves are up to."

"What does that have to do with us?" Daystar asked.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't have to follow you," the elf said, sensibly, answering the question without answering it at all. He glanced up at us and continued.

"But the Darkmorning Elves have been very active in this part of the woods for the past few days, and we thought it might be you they were interested in. And of course, if they're interested, so are we."

"Who do you mean by 'we'?" Daystar asked

"The Goldwing-Shadowmusic Elves," Janril said, standing up a little straighter. "We are on the side of the King, even if he is missing right now. We follow the sword."

"What does that mean?" I asked, totally at sea with the Forest politics. "And how many kinds of elves are there?" He could be throwing out random words for all I knew.

"Quite a few," said Janril. "But the only ones you have to watch out for are the Darkmorning Elves and the Silverstaff Elves." I glanced over at Daystar, questioningly, who nodded that the names sounded correct.

Janril didn't seem to notice "Fortunately, the Silverstaff Elves don't know the sword is back yet, but I doubt that your luck will hold much longer."

"How do you know these Silverstaff Elves don't know about Daystar's sword?" I asked.

"My dear girl, if they did, you'd have wizards all over the place. The Silverstaff Elves are in league with them. Undiscriminating, that's all I can call it."Janril sniffed.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" I asked.

"I suppose you don't," the elf said with a shrug. "But it doesn't really matter. We'll still be glad to help you."

I snorted. Help, right "The last elf who said he was going to help us almost got Daystar killed."

"I'm sorry about that," Janril said calmly. "But I simply can't take responsibility for the Darkmorning Elves. Now, I must be going; I have to let the rest of the Goldwing-Shadowmusic Elves know what's going on. We'll see you at the castle." And he moved as if to walk away

'Just a minute!" I snapped. "What makes you think we're going to let you go?"

"Can you think of anything else we could do with him?" Daystar asked.

"I could eat him, I suppose," the dragon said doubtfully. "I don't think I want to, though. Elves don't taste very good."

"You don't have to eat him," Daystar assured it. "I think we should just let him go."

"But Daystar-" I stopped, I wanted to explain to him how he could be a threat, but I really had no idea what to do with him besides have the dragon eat him and I was pretty sure Daystar would let his hand get blown up by a wizard's staff again before he let an elf that he wasn't absolutely sure was guilty get hurt. And honestly we didn't have the time to spare

"Oh, all right. If you want to let him go, let's do it."

Daystar looked shocked "Are you sure? I thought you didn't like the idea."

Which is what I got for trying to avoid an argument. "I don't," I glared at him. "But we'll be here all day if we start arguing. Besides, it's your sword."

"All right. You can go," he told Janril "as long as you don't follow us around anymore."

"But of course!" The elf bounced to his feet again, bowed to each of us -including Nightwitch-and ran off. I started to yell after him, some dire threats about what would happen if he did try to hurt one of us, the rage with which I would hunt him down. But, honestly I couldn't see the good, it would upset Daystar and it probably wouldn't stop the elf from doing anything he'd planned to do. So I watched as Janril disappeared into the underbrush to go do who-knew-what with the knowledge of who and where we were.

"Well, let's go," Daystar said into the silence. We picked up our bundles and started walking again. I tried to feel for the elf with my magic but got nothing but the background him of the forest. I glanced up to see Daystar sweeping the trees with his eyes as well. After all the fuss Daystar made about watching what you said and promises I'd expected him to just trust the elf at his word. If he didn't why did he just let the elf go? Or lied a little? Interrogated the elf a little more? Done something?

I mulled over it for a while, then lengthened my strides to catch up with him. "Do you really believe that elf?" I asked, quietly.

He thought about it for a moment "I'm not sure," I said. "I don't think it makes much difference, though. I'd still be going to see Kazul, no matter what he said. I want to find out about this sword and what it does and what's really going on around here." His voice took on an edge that was at odds with his seeming endless calm patience.

I frowned at him, wondering where this had come from "What's the matter with you?"

He sighed "I'm getting sort of tired of people chasing my sword, I'd like to know why they want it so badly." He sounded frustrated, tired, and a little nervous.

"Oh." I said. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was getting fed up wandering around trying to avoid wizards with only half-answers to guide us. It was actually sort of comforting, in a way. "Well, you could-"

"You're slowing down," The dragon interrupted, looking back at us from over its shoulder. "Can't you two talk and walk at the same time?"

We stopped talking and concentrated on walking, his longer strides taking him further forward until he took the lead. I fell back a little ways and picked up Nightwitch, who'd been watching me protectively form a distance. For once she allowed the transition without scratching, and sat nuzzling my shoulder.

I smiled and tried to convince her I was fine. I'd almost convinced her when the dragon stopped suddenly at the edge of a clearing.

"What's the matter now?" I asked, tiredly

"This looks just like that last clearing," the dragon said. "The one that had the castle in it."

Anywhere but there "You mean we've been going in circles?"

"No," said the dragon. "I know my way around the Enchanted Forest better than that. I just don't like this."

"Why are you worried?" I muttered. "You're not the one who got turned into a statue."

"Well, if you think banging into something you can't see is fun, you go first," the dragon snapped.

"There's definitely a lot of magic in the clearing, or at least close by." Daystar said, his hand on his sword.

I started to feel for the magic myself, felt a hum of magic, then shut it back down. I didn't want to feel about that. If it was the fire-witches castle or anything invisible, I didn't want to go through that again.

"If it's invisible, I don't want anything to do with it," I told him. "Can't we just go around?"

"No," said the dragon grumpily. "I want to know who's putting all these invisible things in my shortcut. If there's another one here, I'm going to find out about it." It stalked into the clearing, heading straight through the middle.

Nothing happened. It walked all the way across, turned around, and looked at us. "Are you sure there's something here? I can't find anything."

"It feels like there is," Daystar said, he glanced over at me. I looked out at the clearing, thinking of all the ways this was a bad idea," said the dragon.

Daystar sighed and stepped forward, following the dragons path, one hand on his sword. I couldn't just let him go out there alone, I shook my head and reached out to sense for the magic.

I needn't have bothered, the moment I moved forward there a whoosh of magic, and the empty plane that Daystar had been walking through had become a sheet of white hot flames. I didn't think, I dashed forward, driving him through the fire with my weight.

The fire came with him, feeding on his clothes, crackling towards his skin. I beat at it wildly. Terrified he was burned. Again. Oh, please, not again.

"Stop it!" he cried, waving his hands feebly.

I sat back, looking him over for stray sparks or burns. "Are you all right?" I asked.

"I think so," he said. "Why were you pounding on me?"

Why was I pounding on him? Why did he think? Because I felt like it?

"Your clothes were on fire," I snapped. "I was trying to put them out. If I'd known you were going to fuss about it, I'd have let them burn."

He blinked, glanced down at his charred clothes and then thanked me and apologized profusely.

The ring of fire was still there, encircling us along with a short, stumpy version of a tower in the middle. Shiara and I were sitting on the ground, just inside a ring of fire. Daystar glanced around and edged towards me.

"What happened?" he asked

"How should I know? One second you were walking across the clearing, and the next second there was all this fire and you were yelling," I said. "And when I tried to shove you out of it, we both got in here instead, and that thing was sitting there." I waved at the stubby circular building.

"At least it isn't invisible," Daystar said. I gave him a look, dangerous fire walls that we couldn't escape without, well at least him, getting scorched to a crisp, did not indicate a much nicer person lived here.

"Hello?" called the dragon's voice from the other side of the wall of fire. "Are you there?"

"We're here," Daystar yelled. "Both of us."

"How did you do that?" the dragon shouted.

"I don't know," he said. "And I don't want to stay here to find out."

He stood up and put the sword back in its sheath. "I think maybe we'd better go," he told me "Before something comes out of that house." He reached out his hand to help me up.

"It isn't a house," I informed him "But for once I agree with you." I grabbed his hand an d pulled myself up

On the other side of the fire the dragon sneezed.

'Just a minute, there!" a voice said behind me.

We turned to see a medium-sized man with black hair and rings on both hands, but the important thing was that he was leaning on a staff and frowning irritably at us.

"Oh, rats," I muttered. "Another wizard!" I eyed the fire wondering if the dragon could fly over it to us.

"You, are trespassing." The man said, advancing ominously. "I don't know how you got in here, but it was a great mistake for you to do so."

"We didn't exactly do it on purpose," Daystar said, quickly "We were just trying to get across the clearing."

"Young man, I surround my home with a wall of fire for a reason," the wizard said. "And the reason is that I do not like to be disturbed. I wish to know how you penetrated it, or I would not be wasting my time talking with you."

"I'm a fire-witch, that's how!" I snapped. "And if you don't want to be disturbed, you ought to be more careful with your stupid wall. We would have gone right by if it hadn't jumped up all over Daystar when he tried to cross the clearing!"

"A fire-witch?" the wizard said, glancing at me with a mix of suspicion, wariness, revulsion, and a cold anger . "You haven't mislaid an invisible castle recently, have you?"

"No!" I cried. "It isn't mine!" How did he know about that anyway! Had the fire-witch been working with the wizards.

The anger burst into rage and I saw his grip shift on the staff. "You know of it!"

"Well, sort of," Daystar said. "It isn't ours, but we ran into it this morning."

"Did you," said the wizard, skeptically, his voice, soft and very dangerous.

"I think we ought to be going now," Daystar said, cautiously. "We're really very sorry to have bothered you."

"I'm not!" I snapped.

"Shiara!"

"Well, I'm not," I said. "He ought to apologize to us, not the other way around. And anyway, I'm not apologizing to any wizard, especially not one that messes around with invisible castles!" There was no way that sort of person was going to let us go, what was telling the truth going to make him do, kill us? He was already going to do that.

The man with the staff frowned. "What is your complaint against wizards?"

"Ha!" I snarled. "You should know."

"No," said the man, "I should not. I am not a wizard."

I looked at him, behind the wall dragon sneezed again hard enough that the wall of fire bulged inward on that side.

"Excuse me, but if you're not a wizard, why are you carrying a staff?" Daystar asked, calmly. "And why is the dragon sneezing?"

The man looked startled. "Dragon? You travel with a dragon?"

"No, it travels with us," Daystar clarified, automatically "Does it make a difference?"

"Perhaps," the man said. He looked at the wall of fire and magic whispered out of the staff. The wall of flames shrank away, revealing the clearing once more.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapters might be a bit slower to update because I have now used up my pre-written chapter buffer. Gulp. But, for now here is the longest chapter yet.

Chapter 14

"There you are" shouted a little voice, and the black dot of Nightwitch started running towards us.

In the middle of the clearing, drawing most of the attention of our merry little band was the dragon, large, scaly, and helpfully highlighted by the random gouts of fire he was still sneezing out.

"That certainly is a dragon." The man who claimed he wasn't a wizard muttered, rather redundantly. I glanced over and saw him raise his staff and felt magic begin to concentrate. I reached out to do, something, but before anything could happen the magic congealed and the staff disappeared.

The clearing went dead silent (except for Nightwitch panting in the background) and we all stared. My experience with wizards was limited to the past two days, but the ones I'd met were pretty protective of their staffs, as in kill anyone who tries to hurt them protective (or in my case set the entire wizard society after them). They didn't just let go of them and they certainly didn't make them disappear. Unless making the staff disappear was some sort of more powerful magic. As I stood thinking it through, he did something else very unwizard-like. He walked up to the dragon and bowed politely, "I apologize for inconveniencing you," he said. "I offer you greetings and welcome to my home, and I wish you good fortune when you leave."

"What?" the dragon blinked at him.

The man blinked back, then looked at the dragon more closely.

"Oh, I see," he said, he hesitated for a moment and then shrugged. "Well, you're welcome. Come and make yourself comfortable."

And just like that it was all supposed to be okay.

"Honestly, I leave you alone for one moment and look who you're hanging around," she wheezed then half collapsed on my foot. I picked her up and glared at the man.

The dragon seemed to share my feelings "I don't like wizards," it said, eyeing the man suspiciously. "And I don't like people who put invisible things in the middle of my shortcut."

"I am not a wizard," the man sighed. "And my tower has been here for years, and it isn't invisible. Now, come in and talk. There hasn't been a dragon by for a long time, and I'm a bit behind on the news."

"If you're not a wizard, what are you?" I demanded.

"I'm a magician," the man said. "And my name is Telemain."

And as soon as he said that Daystar went into automatic introduction mode. "Pleased to meet you," he began.

"Only if he has cream and some more of those really nice smelling leaves," Nightwitch muttered, and started purring loudly.

I stared at my kitten and then Telemain started laughing in a shockingly non-evil way.

"I don't believe I have ever seen a group quite like this one," Telemain gasped in between laughs laughing. "Please, tell me who you all are."

Daystar took over, introducing each of us, Telemain nodded politely at each name, until Daystar got to his name. That he met with a very sharp glance. "I thought that was what your friend called you," he said cryptically. "Welcome to my home."

"Some welcome!" I snarled. "You nearly got Daystar killed, and you started the dragon sneezing again. And how come the dragon was allergic to you if you aren't a wizard?"

"Dragons aren't allergic to wizards," Telemain said, sounding absolutely apalled."What gave you that idea?"

"I did!" the dragon said. It came over to sit next and settled himself down next to me in solid support. "All dragons are allergic to wizards." He declared. "I should know: I sneeze every time I get near one." And gave the man a steely look.

"Oh, I don't doubt that at all," Telemain said, unconcerned. "But the hypersensitive reaction results from the indiscriminate absorption of magical energy through the enchantments fixed in their staffs."

"What?" said the dragon.

Telemain sighed. "It's not wizards you're allergic to, it's their staffs. You stopped sneezing as soon as I got rid of mine, didn't you?"

"The dragon looked stunned."I did, didn't I?" it said.

And there went my main support. I continued on doggedly, "If you aren't a wizard, what are you doing with a wizard's staff?" I demanded

Telemain raised his eyebrows. "Why do you ask?"

Oh no reason, just that everyone who's had a wizards staff has tried to kill us.

"We've been having some trouble with wizards," Daystar leapt in, earning his understatement of the year award.

"Really." Telemain said in a slightly strangled voice. "All of you?"

No! Well actually, if you thought about it…

"Well, mainly just Shiara and me," Daystar said. "We've been sort of worried about them. Most of them are after Shiara," he added.

"What would the Society of Wizards want with a fire-witch?" Telemain asked. I gave him a look and he shook his head. "I can see that I shall have to invite you in, if only to hear your tale."

Like we were going anywhere with him! "How do you know about the Society?" I demanded, if he was such a non-wizard how did he know what had happened in an exclusive wizard again. "And why should we trust a wizard, anyway?"

Telemain turned and stared down at me, decidedly "Anyone who knows much about magic can tell you're a fire-witch, and the only reason I can think of for a fire-witch to have several wizards after her is if she has done something to offend the Society of Wizards," he declared, sounding vaguely amused. Was he laughing at me? "And for the third time, at least, I am a magician, not a wizard."

"What's the difference?" I demanded belligerently.

"Magicians deal with many ways of magic," Telemain said. "Wizards with only one. Now, will you come in and sit down?"

I gave him a long look, he might be telling the truth but there was really no way to tell. Telemain smiled. "Will an oath content you? If you mean no harm, I am not your enemy, and I will do you no harm while you are my guests, save in self-defense. I swear by the sword," There was a hum in the air, a pressure, and a frisson of energy shimmered through the clearing and washed over me in a wave. Even trying to close out all my magic it overwhelmed me, making me jump.

Nightwitch fell, yowling indignantly and stalking away. The dragon stretched its neck, letting the energy glide over him like a caress. It kept echoing on and on without seeming to lose energy or clarity of tone.

Telemain gaze became noticeably sharper.

"That is the way of it, then?" he muttered. "I don't think I blame you for your caution." He stared at the sword rather intently.

I scowled stubbornly "If you're so smart…" But then was interrupted my cat rubbing up against the suspicious man's leg, absolutely purring.

"Nightwitch?" I asked, shocked.

"An intriguing name for a cat," Telemain said, bending over to pick up Nightwitch, and the little furball didn't even try to claw him. "Even more interesting for a kitten. Where did you come by her?"

"She was a present," I muttered. "From a witch named-"

"Morwen?" Telemain finished.

"A pure witch's cat" Nightwitch purred loudly.

"I suspected as much." Telemain smiled "Now, will you come in? Or do you wish to continue this discussion where anyone may hear?"

I was too shocked by my cat's sudden cuddliness to object. And admittedly when we went in it didn't look like an evil wizard's lair just stone and bare and vaguely messy. It was obviously magical though, seeing as the inside was about twice as big as it looked from the outside. Even trying to ignore my magic-sensing I could feel power humming through the walls, zipping up and down the two iron staircases in a very…unusual way.

The door closed with a slam and a newer strand of the power pulled a table and chairs out of some other region.

"Sit down and tell me about yourselves."

So of course Daystar did. I sat down next to him more slowly, listened warily while he started explaining everything about his mother, the wizard, and the great magical sword. The magician nodded sagely, as if he expected everything, which is to be expected, but he also kept interrupting with really suspiciously specific questions about really technical details: who the magic had affected hear, when exactly had the voice spoken there. He wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he knew something about it.

But, I reminded myself, that didn't necessarily mean he was a wizard. They normally at least tried to be sneaky, and they were attached at the hip to their staffs, and their magic didn't feel like this.

Daystar reached my part of the story and glanced over at me, silently asking if it was all right to go one. I frowned, still not sure if I wanted so much personal information told to a questionable stranger. But I didn't say anything.

Daystar went on with the story, and I watched as various degrees of interest, amusement, and irritation flickered over the magician's otherwise calm face. It wasn't until Daystar mentioned Morwen's house, of all things, that there was any real reaction. His face suddenly lit up and he sat back, smiling.

"I haven't seen Morwen in a long time," he said "How is she?"

"You know Morwen?" I asked

"We grew up together," he replied, the smile growing a bit at the memories. Then he seemed to shake himself back to the present. "Now, exactly what did she have you do to repair the damage to your hand?"

I looked at him, consideringly. He was friends with Morwen, well that would sort of make sense, why Nightwitch had snuggled up to him, maybe, and why he knew so much about the specific quest. And if he was friends with Morwen he probably wasn't bad, she was just too common sense to put up with suspicious friends.

His relaxed impassive face was back on, he only really seemed to be interested in the sword, I noticed, he seemed only mildly interested in the wizards, and downright dismissive when we got to the part about the princess (a very sensible reaction in my opinion). Until Daystar got to our little run in with the invisible castle and its owner.

His face grew serious. "So that's how you knew about it," Telemain said. "I wondered."

"That's how we knew," I said, staring back at him, just as seriously. "How did you know?"

"The castle landed in my clearing sometime around noon," Telemain said dryly. "I was understandably curious as to why someone would go to all the trouble of making a castle invisible and then drop it on top of a magician who can't help noticing it."

The castle was here... "It's not there now," I asked, dreading the answer, I didn't think I could handle seeing it again, feeling that energy, being anywhere near it.

"Of course not!" Telemain assured me "What would I want with an invisible castle? When I found no one home, I cleaned the place up a bit and got rid of it." There was a subtle danger to those last words.

"Cleaned it up?" Daystar asked, confused.

"The most recent owner had a number of unattractive habits," Telemain said in a flat voice. "In addition to casual petrification of passersby, she indulged in seven varieties of involuntary metamorphosis, as well as necromancy and demonology. I don't believe you would be at all interested in the technical details."

"Oh." Daystar looked vaguely ill. Or maybe that was just me projecting, _I _really didn't want the details.

I looked away and straight into the magician's very serious eyes.

"I owe you an apology," he told me. "I knew that the castle was the property of a fire-witch, and I'm afraid that when you showed up, I thought you had some connection with it."

He knew what that meant, what that implied he thought I'd done and he was apologizing. Seriously and sincerely. But I couldn't go all sappy now "Well, I don't," I said, "but I suppose I can see why you might have gotten mad." I couldn't really blame him for wanting to go after the evil she-demon after seeing what was in that place of hers. Speaking of which…I frowned

"How did the castle get into your clearing, anyway?"

Telemain shrugged and leaned back. "As far as I can tell, the unit transportation spell operated on a set of totally random parameters, both in terms of time and location."

"What does that mean?" said the dragon.

"The castle was designed to move around the Enchanted Forest more or less randomly. It's a rather unusual spell to put on a building, particularly an invisible one, because if you happen to be outside when it moves, you get left behind."

"Then why on earth would anyone put a stupid spell like that on a castle?" I muttered

"Presumably this fire-witch didn't expect to have any problems finding the castle again. I don't believe it occurred to her that someone else might find it first." Telemain smiled, a rather fierce smile. "I left a few surprises for her. I doubt that she'll be pleased."

I felt myself grinning in return, at the idea.

"Oh, that's all right," the dragon said. "Daystar got rid of her."

Telemain glanced at Daystar, curiously. "Really. How did you manage that?"

"She threw some sort of spell at me, but Nightwitch scratched her, so she missed," Daystar said, casually, as if him defeating the fire-witch had been something he'd done by accidentl "And after that, I had the sword out."

"You used the Sword of the Sleeping King on a fire-witch?"Telemain said, in a choked gasp.

"I couldn't think of anything else that might work," Daystar told him apologetically, "And it did work, sort of. I mean, it got rid of the fire-witch."

"She went up in smoke," the dragon said gleefully ."I watched."

"She went up in smoke," Telemain sounded absolutely fascinated "And what were you doing while this was going on?"

"I was trying to hang on to the sword," Dastar said "It was glowing red, and my hands felt like they were burning or something, so it was sort of hard to do. But as soon as the fire-witch was gone, it stopped."

"You are extremely fortunate," Telemain told him. "You might have gotten yourself killed and ruined everything. I don't recommend that you try that again. Stick to wizards. That's what the sword was meant for."

"It was?" I asked "How do you know? What else does it do?"

Telemain looked at me, inscrutably. "Magicians know many kinds of magic." Right because that's all it was. Every magician would know the exact technical questions to ask yeah… He turned back to Daystar. "Please, continue."

Daystar glanced at me, obviously curious as well. His eyes flicked back to Telemain then cocked his head tom me in what amounted to a shrug then began talking again. Telemain obviously was part of the secret society of knowledgeable cryptics. I snorted and sat back in my chair.

Daystar finished and Telemain shook his head "So the war is beginning again," he murmured "I had best make my own preparations. I wonder why no one let me know?"

I sat bolt upright"War?" Daystar and I demanded at the same time.

Telemain looked up, surprised. "The war between the dragons and the wizards," as if it should be obvious.

Not to us, and apparently not to the dragon either, since its head suddenly jerked up."War with the wizards?" it asked.

"It is obvious," Telemain said stiffly. "The elves are choosing sides, the dragons are restless, the wizards are coming into the Enchanted Forest in large numbers, and the Sword of the Sleeping King has returned. What more do you need to know?"

What the Sword of the Sleeping King has to do with any of that, for example. But before I could say anything Daystar asked pretty much exactly that, albeit in a much different tone than I would have used.

"The sword is what started the war in the first place," Telemain replied. There was a moment of expectant silence as we waited for him to continue. He blinked then shook his head, definitively, "If Cimorene didn't see fit to explain, I certainly won't," he said. "When you meet Kazul, I am sure she will tell you whatever you need to know. I'm afraid I don't have time at the moment. I must see to things at once, if we are to win this war at last."

"What do you mean 'we'" I asked him, I was all for kicking wizard butt, but I hadn't signed up for any sort of war. Especially one that I had no clue how it started.

"The dragons," Telemain replied, "and the rest of us who follow the sword. Now, if you will excuse me?" And he got up and started walking away.

"Wait a minute!" I yelled. "What about us?" We were carrying the stupid flaming sword that apparently people were following. Weren't we supposed to do something, make rousing speeches, lead the army? Something?!

"What? Oh, of course," Telemain said. He waved his hand again and muttered something, the space flexed again, and suddenly plates and bowls full of food appeared on the table. "Help yourselves while I am gone," he said. "I don't expect to be long." And headed jogged up the stairs.

Not exactly what I meant.

I glanced over at Daystar and found him looking back at me with an equally frustrated expression.

"Now what do we do?" I asked.

Daystar shrugged,"I'm going to eat," he said and sat down "Would you like something?"

I snorted. Again, not what I meant, what was it with these forest people and not answering questions? Not that there was anything new there. Oh, well no use letting good food go to waste, who knew when we were going to get another banquet like this, wandering in the forest, or apparently fighting a war. The others seemed to agree as everyone proceeded to dig in to the food. Though being a magical feast it seemed be designed to suit the eaters, co that suddenly there were several large platters of roast meat and a bucket of chocolate mousse near the dragon and a small dish of cream conveniently within Nightwitch's paw reach. And either it was perfectly planned portion wise or had some self-regeneration ability because the spread outlasted even the dragons appetite. The dragon had just rolled back from the table with a satisfied belch when Telemain reappeared from the stairs.

"I was right," he announced, to the world at large, without bothering to explain what he happened to be right about."You'd better stay here for the night. It will be much safer for everyone, and it will give me time to look into things a little more. You've been extremely lucky so far, but there's no reason to take any more chances until you must."

Daystar started to nod, but then, wonder of wonders, stopped to think. He looked over at me, questioningly. I stared back, thinking, I still didn't know how much I liked this. He wasn't a wizard, after all Nightwitch liked him, and seemed to kind of know him so he couldn't be that bad. I glanced over at where my kitten was snuggled up on Telemain's chair. No point turning down a real bed either. I shrugged. "Let's stay."

"You will find rooms upstairs, on the second floor," Telemain told us .'Just pick one and go in." He turned to the dragon. "I think you'll be more comfortable down here."

"I think you're right," muttered in response, glaring at the iron steps.

I snorted quietly and started climbing the rickety frame. Or tyring to. I moved my feet but each time I brought my foot up the previous step seemed to sink down so that I ended up marching in place.

"What's the matter?" Daystar asked, catching up to me. Probably busy thanking our host.

What did he think was wrong? "There's something wrong with this stupid staircase!" I snarled. "I keep trying to climb up, but I don't go anywhere?"

Telemain, looked up, somewhat sheepishly "I'm sorry; I should have warned you. You'll have to take the other staircase. That one incorporates a unidirectional matrix focused groundward."

I really was not in the mood for this. "Say that again, in English," I said slowly.

"That stairway just works going down."

"That's ridiculous!" I growled "How can a staircase only work going in one direction?"

"He's a magician," Daystar said, and started tripping lightly up the other staircase.

Because that solved . I muttered something uncomplimentary under my breath and followed him. Whatever had been stopping me from going anywhere on the other staircase helped us go up on this staircase since it took us practically no time at all to pass over to spiral up to the second floor, where we were met with a circle of identical doors.

Daystar just stood there and I wondered if it was against some sort of politeness rule to go somewhere you weren't explicitly invited. "Well, he said to just go in," I reminded him. He nodded warily and each of us grabbed a door and opened it. The rooms looked the same. Small, well lit and comfortable with a bed, a table, a lamp, a padded chair, and a small set of drawers with a mirror above it arranged in the exact same pattern. Out of curiosity I opened up the other doors , to find they too were identical. It made sense actually probably when he was making the tower he created one stock room and then simply duplicated it to make as many guest rooms as he wanted. The furniture could just sit there nicely though, the flame would probably be harder to control… "I wonder if he keeps lights going in all these rooms?" I murmured.

"He might," Daystar said. "I mean, he is a magician. Does it matter?"

That phrase again. Oh, of course, he's a magician, because that answered my question. That explained how the spell worked, how he channeled his magic, where it came from, and why he chose to use it the way he did. Those little details that, we had, oh-so-recently learned were rather important tips about a person's character. That was all summed up in the fact that he was a magician. The fact that he was a flaming magician summed up everything about him.

I whirled on him, glaring and found myself unable to find words enough withering sarcasm to express my displeasure. So I simply stalked past him into a room at random and slammed the door as soon as Nightwitch had scurried in behind me.

"Wasn't he the one who said I couldn't say I had a temper just because I was a flaming fire-witch even though that's practically how you identify one?" I seethed, pacing about the room "I mean its practically part of the definition. But magicians can apparently do things just because their magicians. That explains their magic. Because everyone who uses the same sort of magic must use it in the exact same way. I'm sure we just missed Morwen's daily broom-flying and cackling practice, and her next round of gingerbread really was going to be used to make a house to trap small children. Because she's a witch."

"A waste of good gingerbread." Nighwitch interrupted, curling up on the pillow where she could watch me pace with the least amount of movement on her part.

I snorted "Exactly. Because that's not how life works. Where does that hypocritical idiot get off? Does. It. Matter? Honestly?! And I ought to and go back to lighting everything around me on fire and start making myself my own little castle right now. Because I'm a flaming fire-witch!"

"Your hair's on fire." My cat informed me, closing her eyes.

I glanced in the mirror as I paced by it and found that my hair had, in fact turned into a rather respectable tower of flame. "Of course it is…" I muttered, and glanced up to see if any of the ceiling had gotten scorched.

"How come my fur doesn't my fur does that when I'm angry?" Nightwitch muttered, sounding sleepy."

"Because I'm a fire-witch and you're a cat." I informed her shortly,

There was a beat of silence, and I realized what'd I'd just said. In the mirror my cat cracked one eye to stare at me.

"That's different." I muttered, the flames on my head sputtered.

My cat blinked.

"It is." I insisted, rather weakly.

My cat stretched in a very shrug-like way. "You're hair lights on fire because you're a fire-witch, the dragon sneezes at wizards because he's a dragon, Telemain uses big words to talk about everything because he's…Telemain."

A laugh wiggled its way out of me in the middle of my sullen snort as I sat down on the bed. Nightwitch, sensing weakness snuggled up against my leg and made hopeful pet-me noises. It had been a long day, and I really didn't have the energy to stay annoyed in the face of a purring kitten.

"How do you even know Telemain?" I asked, "He said he hadn't seen Morwen in years and you can't be that old…"

"He's on the talking mirror all the time." Nightwitch purred sleepily "Once a week, more if he wants to bother Morwen about a spell. His voice sounds the same though his face is a lot farther away. And he smells like the packages."

"The packages?"

"The stuff that travelers would drop off when they passed by, it all had that smell. Lots of other too. But they _all_ had that smell. No matter what they were. Books, and spell stuff, and the lovely stuffed mouse toy for my birthday."

"He sent a cat a birthday present?"

"Mmm-hmmm. Just for the first birthday of course. It smelled sooo good." She trailed off into purrs at the memory. I waited for her to go on and was answered by suspiciously sleepy rumbling noises that might have been snores. I sighed, so much for deeper plots or information, then I set her on the other pillow, lay down, and followed her example.


	15. Chapter 15

****And I'm back. Sorry for the delays.

**Chapter 15**

Nightwitch wasn't there in the morning. There were a few black hairs on the pillow next to me and across the room the door was slightly ajar. Light streamed through it, along with the smell of fresh bread, and vague sounds of movement downstairs. I stretched and shoved the covers out of my way, wondering vaguely how my cat had gotten the door open. Had she jumped on the handle or teleported through? Or, I thought with a smirk, just mewled at the door until Daystar let her out.

However that would mean that he had to hear her through the door, which would mean the room wasn't magically shut off from noise, which would mean that Daystar probably heard all of those less than complimentary things I'd more or less shouted last night. Suddenly going down to eat breakfast near him sounded a lot less appetizing. My stomach growled its disagreement and I found myself moving to the door in spite of myself. I doubted even someone as polite as Daystar would be exactly happy with someone who'd been screaming about how stupid he was while he tried to sleep. And I wasn't exactly an expert on how make people less angry. Was I supposed to apologize for being angry? I mean it wasn't as if I didn't mean what I said. Well maybe not all of it, but…

I walked down into the same open room with a table piled high with food. My cat was at the far end, eyeing the ham on Telemain's plate as the magician absentmindedly picked as his food. The Dragon was busily consuming the rest of the entire ham. Daystar sat closest to me, calmly peeling an orange, he glanced up as I came in and looked at me with a rather guarded expression. I tried smiling at him though I felt it might have come off a little guilty, but it seemed to work. Daystar's face relaxed into a grin of what I would swear was relief and he offered me one of the apples from his plate. I took it and dug into the food, sending one grateful glance at Telemain who _must_ have magically isolated the rooms somehow and he was a genius for doing so. I don't think he noticed. The genius spent most of the meal staring broodingly into space. It wasn't until we'd all finished that he said anything.

"I have watched the Enchanted Forest all night" he looked over at Daystar "and there are some things you should know, but I do not wish to detain you against your will."

Yeah let's not inconvenience the adventurers with answers or useful information. "What things?" I interrupted him.

Telemain smiled slightly. "I fear you will have some difficulty in reaching the castle," he said. "I found no less than twelve wizards searching the area between it and you."

"Oh, great" I muttered, "Just what we need – more wizards!"

"I don't think it's very good" the dragon said vaguely confused, "Why do you?"

"I don't" I told him shortly. Did dragons really not understand sarcasm?

"Then why did you say so?" Apparently not. I would probably have said something rude at that point or started beating my head on the table, but Daystar spoke

"What can we do about them?" he asked Telemain, hauling the conversation back on a useful track.

"I think you can avoid them if you go through the Caves of Chance," Telemain replied.

I stared, we all did. Everyone knew about the Caves of Chance. Every third prince or knight or fortune-seeker was off to seek them going on and on about the magical stone or water or blade they needed that could only be found in there. They also mentioned the exact instructions they'd been given to follow and all the horrible guard spells there. None of them had come back. According to Daystar's they were all probably still alive just enchanted into rocks or something, and would be back to normal as soon as someone completed the quest correctly, in a hundred years or so. Not a fate I wanted to share.

"Ha!" I said weakly. "The Caves of Chance are even more dangerous than the wizards!"

I don't think so," Telemain said, seeming unperturbed "I have been through them, and they're not as bad as most people think. Furthermore, there is an entrance to the caves within half a day's travel, and an exit that is very close to the castle. And once you are inside the caves, the wizards will not be able to find you"

"Why not?" I asked

"The Caves of Chance do not welcome wizards' magic."

Well that was useful "Can you give us directions?" Daystar asked.

Telemain nodded and pulled a large map out of his sleeve. On it was a tiny Enchanted Forest mapped out in little symbols, colors, and what looked to be marked routes. Morwen's house was labeled quite plainly in orange near the lower left hand section of the map looking at it and Telemain pointed out where his tower was, on the map it really didn't look like much of a journey, even though we'd spent the last few days trekking over it. The dragon's castle looked to be just about as far away. And full of wizards, Telemain pointed to each spot he'd seen them, marking them with little blue stones from one of his pockets. Equal amount of distance four times the amount of wizards. Yay. In contrast the entrance to the caves looked to be maybe half a day's journey and avoided all of the wizards groups. Or at least the ones he'd seen, Telemain reminded up, it was possible some had moved into that region unobserved, but once we got into the Caves of Chance none of the wizards would be a problem

Then Telemain turned the map over, and on the back was a map of the Caves of Chance. He went into teacher mode explaining the routes we could take from beginning to end and how to deal with the things we might meet on the way. Daystar looked like he wanted to sit down and take notes, I tried to remember as much as I could, though personally I thought that if a rock snake was squeezing Daystar to death I'd be more likely to go for its head than to start digging through our supplies for a mirror. Especially since we, apparently couldn't put anything down while in the caves, because anything that wasn't actively being held in our hands was likely to disappear. But maybe it'd end up saving our lives. Stranger things had happened.

When Telemain was satisfied that we enough information that we probably wouldn't get ourselves lost and killed, he rolled the map up and put it back in his sleeve. We grabbed our packs from the doorway and headed outside to say good-byes.

"When you meet Kazul, tell her I will be coming for the battle." Telemain said. Oh right we were walking into a war I'd forgotten about that and now it all came rushing back to me. I felt vaguely ill but all the same I was glad we weren't rushing into unknowing. Or completely alone, someone we knew would be with us for this battle.

I only half heard Telemain continuing "I called her last night on the magic mirror to let her know that you're on your way, so she's expecting you."

"I'll remember," Daystar said formally. "And thank you again for your help." He had really done a lot for us, with the food, and the blessedly sound-proofed rooms, and the information…

"Yes," I said seconding Daystar's thanks. It was the least I could do whatever he'd said or hadn't said he'd helped up and I'd been nothing but suspicious and confrontational. I wanted to make it better somehow. "I think I ought to apologize to you," I decided. "I wasn't very nice last night."

Telemain bowed. "Neither of us was blameless," he said. "I shall forget it, if you will."

He took credit for his part in the argument, acknowledged his impoliteness to me. That must be a big thing for someone from the Enchanted Forest and I respected him for it. I didn't know what to say to that so I looked him in the eye and nodded. Then I turned to Daystar, his mouth was hanging open in a ridiculous way.

"Let's go, then" I told him, hefting my bundle onto my back ."Let's go, then."

He closed his mouth with a click and followed. Waving good-bye to Telemain we started off into the forest again.

Daystar and I were both on edge, jumping at small noises,expecting wizards to pop out from behind every corner, however the nonhumans seemed less bothered. Nightwitch bounded ahead of us attacking sunbeams and leaves. I tried to call her back the first few times but as the day went on without incident I gave up and let her wander. The dragon took up the rear for once, though I thought that was more to get out of our twitchy way and maybe hunt up a snack than a belief that wizards would attack us from behind.

Whatever apologetic mood had struck me at Telemain's had stuck with me and I found myself glancing at Daystar wanting to say something.

"I don't like being told I do something just because I'm a fire-witch."

Daystar glanced over at me. "Okay…" he said clearly confused.

"That's what I thought last night when you kept saying Telemain was a magician as an explanation for everything."

"I didn't mean it like that." He said carefully "I just meant that as a magician he could use magic to do things like make stairs go one way."

"I know, I'd just found out that as a fire-witch I could do things like make invisible castles."

He glanced over at me, then understanding dawned over his features.

"You're not like her."

"I get angry and I burn things and people get hurt, how is it different?"

"That was because you didn't have your magic under control…"

"A little more control or power and maybe I would have burned them on purpose. There were times I wanted to, they were always so sure that I was going to burn them all, there were times I wanted to just to prove them right." I was keeping my voice down but that was about it I couldn't keep the pain or the wild edge from my words.

Daystar looked at me. "I don't think you would have."

I snorted though it sounded more like a strangled cough.

"Honestly." He said. "When the wizards were going to experiment on you, you were angrier with them than with anyone in your village, right?"

"I guess" None of them had ever tried to imprison me or experiment on me.

"And the way you described it you were pretty much in control of your magic, correct."

"Yeah"

"But you didn't attack the wizard, you attacked his staff."

"Wood burns more easily."

"Not wizards staffs, they're covered in enchantments. You probably could have lit him on fire more easily. And then when the second wizard attacked you hit his water monster not him."

"It was attacking you!"

"On his orders." Daystar said calmly. "I have never seen you hit a person. And you've never mentioned doing so in your village" he looked at me expectantly.

"I did set Berrise's hem on fire, but she only lost an inch of dress."

"See" I would have sworn I saw a smile "You've never lit a person on fire in sixteen years of not being able to control your magic, that's not an accident. I don't think the other fire-witch could say the same. You don't try to hurt people, Shiara, if you want to do something to them you aim for the things around them."

I thought about that for a moment.

"I told you so." Came a voice from my feet, Nightwitch looked back up at me with a captured leaf in her mouth and big, smug eyes. I laughed and translated for Daystar, who rubbed her head and thanked the kitten for her support. The conversation moved on to lighter things for a while then we fell into a more relaxed, companionable silence. The dragon, sensing the tension had passed came back and joined us again, and quickly stopped to demand lunch.

The mention of food made my mouth water and Daystar's stomach grumbled loud enough for me to hear it. We grinned at each other. We didn't have too much farther to go, anyway Daystar had spotted the last major landmark before the cave entrance just a few minutes earlier. Stopping for lunch would probably give us a chance to scout the area, see how close it was. That's what we told ourselves as we sat down in a small clearing dominated by a truly enormous tree, lying on its side. Nightwitch took it seriously, sticking her nose into every interesting knothole in the tree and hole in the ground. I sat down and traded gingerbread for meatpies with Daystar and started searching in my own way. I didn't so much try to sense the magic around me as I stopped trying to block it out. The forest came first, the rumble of ancient and very alive magic flowing through the world coming back with a familiar weight. Then, under that, the practical, no-nonsense framework of Morwen's magic on our bundles, and the vaguely metallic cinnamon sensation that I hadn't even realized I'd come to associate with the dragon. And still nothing from the stupid sword. Or anything else nearby really. I didn't really know what the Caves of Chance felt like but I figured that something as big and magical as the caves would be pretty hard to miss. I stretched my senses out further.

"How much farther is it to the castle?" I asked the dragon, hoping it'd give some hint on the distance or direction I should be looking

"Oh, not very far," the dragon said. "About another day, if we weren't going through the caves. I've never been in the caves, so I don't know how long that will take." Well there went that idea.

"I thought you said this was a shortcut," I muttered.

"It is a shortcut," the dragon said in a hurt tone. "How was I supposed to know a fire-witch was going to get in the way? Not to mention an elf and a magician."

Once again Daystar interrupted before I could say anything rude. "Do you think Kazul will tell us anything about the sword?" he asked

"I'm sure she will," the dragon said reassuringly. Though personally I had my doubts about that one, the more people knew in this place the less they seemed to explain anything. I didn't hear the rest of what he was saying though because a disturbingly familiar. The moment I thought that the dragon's nose began twitching.

"Ah…ahh…"

Daystar and I dropped our lunches and dove away from the line of fire.

"Achoo!" Another spurt of flame shot towards us and the dragon shot backward, shaking the tree it'd wrapped itself around "Achoo! Oh, bother.. Achoo!"

I darted behind the dragon. I needed to hide to just sit down and concentrate for a moment so I could find the stupid wizards and think of something to do. They weren't going to look for me behind a fire-sneezing dragon. Plus the dragon probably couldn't sneeze behind itself. Not that fire would really be an issue for me. Daystar on the other hand…

"Daystar! I shouted "Over here!"

He darted over, drawing his sword as he went. I closed my eyes and reached out finally locating the pale, hollow magical buzz of wizards. There, two directly ahead and one farther off in the bushes. I opened my eyes and found myself pointing at two wizards leaning on their staffs directly in front of me maybe twenty feet away. Figures, as soon as I started actually trying to use magic again the wizards decided they should try being obvious.

Daystar had his sword out next to me, but the wizards ignored him in favor of the fire-spewing dragon.

"Hurry up," the taller one said nervously. "We don't want this to get out of hand."

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait," the wizard in the bushes declared and stepped out revealing our old friend Antorell. I'm sure he was going a dramatic entrance, but really he was stepping out of bushes; there were little bits of leaves and twigs all over his robes, with a rather festive sprig of berries in his beard. The beard had lost several inches from the fireball and I thought I could see little embers still glowing merrily.

"You see, I want him, too." He finished with a smile, satisfied that he'd made a huge impression on everyone

"Um, can't we discuss this somewhere else?" said the first wizard, eyeing the dragon.

Antorell glanced at the dragon and sighed impatiently, "Oh, you needn't worry about that,"

He smirked. "I came prepared." He held up his hand to show everyone weird , spiky purple leaves he was holding.

"Dragonsbane," he cried triumphantly. Which, as far as I was concerned, explained absolutely nothing but sounded ominous.

The other wizards relaxed. "Such forethought," murmured the non-nervous one and bowed to Antorell.

"Under the circumstances, we will be happy to split the reward with you."

"I am afraid that is out of the question," Antorell said as arrogantly as it was possible to be when trying to make himself heard over a sneezing dragon. "The boy and his sword are mine."

"The boy!" said the nervous wizard. "But-"

His taller partner interrupted him with a glare and stepped forward. "As you say, the boy is yours. I trust you have no objection if we take the girl?"

Oh right. They weren't just chasing us because of the great dragon-wizard war of the magical sword, they were still angry about that whole burning-the-head-wizards-staff thing. I'd almost forgotten about that. Though actually, considering the situation we were in staff burning sounded like a rather good idea. How had I even done that?

"It's settled, then," Antorell said. "We help each other. The girl first?"

"Ah, why not start with the dragon?" the nervous wizard asked.

Antorell smiled condescendingly. "Very well." He stepped forward , muttering over the dragonsbane and the dragon started howling.

"Yow!" it shouted. "Achoo! I hate wizards. Ouch! Achoo! Help!"

"You stop that!" I yelled, rounding on the wizards. How dare they? What had the dragon ever done to them? Sneezed on them? It couldn't even help that! It couldn't help that it breathed fire or looked scary!

Daystar dashed forward towards Antorell, sword raised and stopped cold. I could see him straining to move forward but nothing happened, panicked he glanced over his shoulder.

I followed his gaze. The dragon couldn't stop sneezing now, though now they were peppered with gasping coughs. It was slowly sinking down the tree, muscles losing their strength, claws scratching feebly against the bark. I could feel its magic fading. They were killing it! Fire flowed through me vengeful and alive. No! I would not allow it.

"Shiara" I heard faintly "Get the dragonsbane." The dragonsbane, the plant that was what was hurting the dragon. That was what was killing my friend! I pointed at the leaves in Antorell's hand, focusing all the fire and fury on that little dash of purple.

A thin, precise tongue of flame, bright as a star leapt up in Antorell's hand. The wizard yelped and yanked his hand away. The fire flared as it fell and only ashes hit the ground. Whoa. I hadn't expect it to work that well. I'd never actually hit something I'd been aiming for before. I thought I heard the dragon's sneezes slow down behind me.

"This is the assistance you give us?" the tall wizard snarled "The dragon still lives!"

"Did I say anything about killing it?" Antorell sneered, brushing ashes off his sleeve. "You need have no more fear of it. It will take some time to regain its strength, and by then we shall be finished. What next?"

The tall wizard seemed to consider" The girl, I think, that is, if you're sure you can handle her?" he added snidely

"That is the least of my problems," Antorell replied

"Ha!" I called loudly, challenging them. Come on wizard boys, who tried to hurt my friend, let's see if I can pull that fire trick again. And if not, I could feel Daystar moving next to me, wizard-defeating sword at the ready. The wizards looked at us, then at each other.

"Let us begin," said the tall one.

They raised their staffs and they brought them together, gathering power jointly , letting it bounce among the staffs in a complicated web, growing stronger until it crackled with energy. I could see it as a blue light building between them. The staffs touched and the light grew painfully bright then hurtling toward us, spreading out as it moved. The sword rang with what I swear was defiance. Daystar stepped forward and sliced the spell in half. The spell collapsed into a tangled mess and disappeared.

The wizards stared. Then magic started gathering whirling around in a vortex the Forest once again gathering into a single showing of power: pure, ancient and untamed. All of it centered around Daystar, lifting him up into the air and flinging me halfway across the glade. The wizards were farther away but even they took several steps back. A sneeze sounded to my left and I glanced over to see the dragon half sprawled on the ground a few feet away. I stifled a groan started working my way through the press of magic, biting back a few choice comments on pushy, overly showy magic. As if on cue the voices came again

"All hail the Wielder of the Sword!"

The dragon looked better, but that wasn't saying much. It was half lying on the ground staring glassily at the spectacle, sneezing absently. With enough effort I was pretty sure Nightwitch could take it down. That was not okay. Even Daystar flattened the wizards, which was looking more likely by the second, we were going to make a dash for the caves as soon as possible. We couldn't wait around here for an hour while the dragon regained its strength and the idea of trying to pick our way through the incredibly dangerous with a woozy dragon sounded absolutely horrifying.

So I mentally ran through the healing spell Morwen had written up for me and tried to concentrate, carefully will and healing into the lines of the spell diagram. I murmured the incantation planted my hands on the ground just inside the diagram. There was a surge of magic, far more powerful than my little spell should have called up, the ground rumbled and there was a sound like lots of little bells jingling all at once. The dragon raised its head, clambering to its feet. Its eyes were still slightly glassy, but it seemed to be more aware, straightening its coils to begin winding its way towards the large tree by the wizards with a purpose, muttering darkly about "magic" and "hungry". It sounded worrying and... I blinked. That tree hadn't been there a moment ago, had it?

There was a buzz as wizard magic started to gather, drawing my attention back to Daystar and the wizards. Daystar was standing there calm as ever while the tall wizard held Antorell back.

"Wait, fool! Don't you know what that sword is?"

"Of course I know, oaf." I was close enough to see the almost fanatic gleam that leapt into Antorell's eyes. "It is mine! I will have it!"

"You will be dead, you mean," the tall wizard said bluntly. "This is a matter for the whole Society of Wizards. There may still be time to stop him if we can bring them quickly enough."

"More wizards? Achoo! Oh, no you don't! Achoo! Oh, drat, achoo!" the dragon dashed forward, the remaining coils unwinding from the tree faster than I would have thought possible. There was a scream and a sneeze, and then the wizards disappeared leaving behind a dragon with a rather red mouth. It chewed twice, swallowed something, and sat back. "Wizards," it declared smugly, "taste much better than elves." Well that explained the talk about being hungry.

The dragon turned to me with a very odd look.

"Don't you look at me like that!" I scowled at it "I'm not a wizard, I'm a fire-witch."

The dragon looked horrified. "But I wouldn't eat you! You're my friend. It wouldn't be polite at all!"

I eyed it warily, not sure it was what you'd call in its right mind. It had almost just died and politeness didn't seem like something you'd bring up as a reason not to kill someone. But, then this was the Enchanted Forest, everything seemed to be based on politeness.

"I just wanted to make sure you remembered." I told it

The dragon looked vaguely offended.

"I think we'd better get going," I said. "Those wizards sounded like they were going to come back with reinforcements."

"Oh, terrific," I muttered. "Let's go, then. Where's Nightwitch?"

"Up here" she meowed. We all looked up to see my kitten perched on one of the middle branches of the magically appearing tree, calmly washing her paws.

"Nightwitch, come down!" I called. "Those wizards might come back any minute!"

"Good. I went to all of that effort of creeping up for a sneak attack like I did the evil fire-witch and then this tree got in the way. If they come back I can dive at them from above and claw their faces." She crouched expectantly, tail waving in the air at the prospect.

I sighed, there'd be no getting her out of the tree now, unless we actually started moving towards the Caves of Chance.

"Kazul is going to be surprised about this!" the dragon was going on about. "Two new trees in a couple of days!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked "It's just a tree."

"No, it isn't," the dragon said. "It's a new tree. And it's the second new tree I've seen in two days, so it's important. The other one hit me on the nose," it muttered, sullenly.

"You mean it's been a long time since there were any new trees?" Daystar asked.

The dragon nodded. "Kazul mentioned it once. She sounded worried. I think they're a nuisance, popping up like that." It rubbed at its nose.

"But where do they come from?" I asked, curious in spite of myself. "And why do they show up when we-" I glanced at Daystar. What were we doing? For trees to be popping up, especially in the middle of the Enchanted Forest there had to be some magic floating around that triggered it. The first one had sprouted up in the middle of the not-quite-a-tourney and this second one in the middle of wizard battle. The dragon had been in both of those but if the king of dragons was worried about the trees then they probably didn't have the power to fix the problem. I'd done some magic too in both cases, but I hadn't even used fire-witch magic the first time. I'd used Morwen's protection spell, which I doubted would dare do anything other than what it was intended to do, because I didn't want to risk my temperamental magic against a wizard…. That was it!

"Daystar," I said. "It's the wizards."

"It can't be," he replied. "What about the first one?"

The dragon tilted its head to one side, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"The trees," I explained. "Both of them grew in places where a wizard threw a spell at us" It made perfect sense we'd had two trees and…three wizards try to kill us ..." But there wasn't any tree when the first wizard tried to drown us, so it can't be wizards." I muttered, thinking out loud. And it had been such a good idea too.

It's the sword!" Daystar cried suddenly "It stopped Antorell's spell the first time, and a little while later a tree sprouted. This time it stopped a bigger spell, and we got a bigger tree. It didn't stop any spells when the first wizard made that water monster, so no new trees grew. It has to be the sword."

That was true, and the sword was certainly weird enough. But…

"You didn't get a tree when you fought the fire-witch" I pointed out

"Well, Telemain told us the sword was meant for wizards. It probably only does that for wizards' spells."

"Your sword grows trees?" the dragon said skeptically. Well put that way…

"It does sound a little silly," Daystar said.

"Look out below!" Nightwitch launched herself at me. I grabbed for her, missed, got one hand sort of scooped around her, juggled her about unsteadily, nearly lost my footing, caught myself, and settled my cat neatly on my shoulder. Then dusted off my tunic as if nothing unusual had just happened.

"Good," I said, struggling to regain a bit of dignity "Now, if you're all done fussing about trees and swords, how about leaving? Before the wizards come back."

I grabbed my pack and strode off in what I hoped was the right direction, though with our current luck we'd probably run into the infamous vain rock snakes.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Our luck actually held, we found the entrance to the Caves of Chance without running into anything else that wanted to kill us. Well, unless you count my almost falling into the stupid thing. Telemain had told us to look for a big hole in the ground but he hadn't mentioned the slippery moss around it or, more importantly, how far down it went.

"How are we going to get down there?" I asked, leaning over to get a better look at the dark pit. "I can't even tell how deep it is."

"We'll have to use the blankets Morwen gave us," Daystar suggested. "We can tie them together."

"What about me?" said the dragon. "I can't climb down blankets."

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe we'll think of something once we know how far it is."

I rolled my eyes and opened up my pack, Daystar could deal with the dragon I'd prefer to get something actually done. But when I reached in to grab a blanket, my hand brushed over something coarse and rough.

"What if you can't think of anything?"

"Hey?!" I yanked my hand back and stared at a large coil of rope that was lying neatly on top of the blankets like it had always been there. "Daystar, look at this!" I called

He excused himself from the dragon and came over "What is it?" he asked.

"This," I pulled the rope out of the bag "It wasn't here before."

"Are you sure?" he asked

"Of course I'm sure!" I think I'd remember a huge coil of rope in the middle of my blankets! "Look in your pack. Maybe you have one, too."

Daystar looked dubious but opened up his pack too. He blinked and pulled out not only another rope but a little silver lamp and a set of flints. He looked at the bag then at the items then at me, I grinned and shrugged and started tying the ropes together. Daystar helped, looping the ropes around the nearest tree to gives us an anchor. The dragon stood off to the side, grumbling about how such tiny ropes would never hold it anyway. We ignored it.

"Do you think it made it to the bottom?" I asked Daystar.

He shrugged. "Hopefully, it's close enough. We'll have to climb down to be sure."

"Alright, give me the lamp. That way you'll be able to see when I get to the bottom."

"No, that's alright. I think it'd be better if I went down first."

"But, I'm lighter."

"If I go down first and the rope holds we'll know that it will hold you. But that wasn't what I meant."

I gestured for him to go on.

"I have a magic sword, if something jumps out and attacks me I can defend myself better."

"I can defend myself just fine. Fire-witch, remember?"

"That won't work if it's a rock snake, they're pretty resistant to fire."

"Well they're pretty resistant to swords too. And" I went on before he could respond "you couldn't climb down carrying the sword anyway, you'd have to stand around getting it out. I could just point at it and fire away."

"You can fire from long distance. If I go down, you could help fight anything attacking me from up here. If you went down you'd be alone."

"I could handle them alone."

"I'd go first if the ropes could actually hold me." The dragon interrupted.

We both glanced at the dragon, then at each other.

"I'll go." Daystar said.

"I'll go." I insisted.

Daystar sighed, shoving in his hand in his pocket. His face lit up and he produced a small copper coin. "We could flip a coin for it. You call it?"

I agreed. He tossed the coin. I lost.

If it hadn't been Daystar (it-wouldn't-be-polite-to-cheat-Daystar) I would have demanded another toss, where I got to throw the coin again. As it was I simply bit my tongue as Daystar tucked everything he'd need into his belt and lowered himself into the darkness. I kept watching, when he disappeared from sight, trying to listen for anything moving around in the darkness.

"I could try shooting a fire-ball down there, so we could see." It offered.

"It might burn the rope." I muttered, gnawing on my lower lip.

Daystar called up something from the hole, there was a pop and then light, revealing Daystar standing on a flat patch of rock 30 feet below us.

"It doesn't go down any farther." The tiny ring of light bobbed around as he waved it over the rest of the floor of the cave.

"That's not so bad," the dragon commented next to me, excitedly. "I can jump that far."

"I think you should wait until Shiara climbs down," Daystar called. "Then you can untie the rope and bring it with you."

I leaned in closer, practically sticking my head into the hole. "You're right; it's not nearly so bad when you can see the bottom." And able to see the lack of big scary monsters in the dark.

"If you drop the bundles Morwen gave us, I can catch them," Daystar recommended "Then you can climb down and we can get started."

"All right." I grabbed the bundles "Ready? Catch." And tossed them down one at a time, faint thuds marking their progress to the bottom.

I'd been planning to make some sort of sling to carry Nightwitch down with me. However Nightwitch had turned up her nose at the idea, and before I could do anything to stop her, took a flying leap off into the hole with another "Look out below." There was scrabbling and some yelps of pain from below as Daystar tried to catch the unexpected ball of fur.

"Got her" Daystar called up.

I glanced at the dragon and started climbing down after them. It wasn't an easy climb, the rope twisted and spun enough to disorient me and my arms started burning halfway down. I'd never admit it, but I was suddenly quite happy to have lost the coin toss and not make this particular trip in the dark. Daystar handed me my bundle and cat when I reached the bottom. We moved over to the side of the cave, which opened up into a tunnel, to make room for the dragon to jump down.

There was a woosh and a fairly strong breeze as the dragon opened up its wings to slow down.

"That was easy!" It said.

I stared at the dragon. Easy? Really? How would it like to try scraping the skin off its hide from the stupid rope. I was about to say something when I noticed Daystar, slumping tiredly, covered with scratches from the trip down and my rather careless kitten. I couldn't see his face but he didn't look up to getting in the middle of yet another argument. I swallowed my sarcasm and turned on my heel.

"Well? Are you going to stand there until the wizards show up again?" I demanded

"We have to decide what we're going to hold on to first," Daystar pointed out

Well it's not like we had many other choices what were we going to do levitate the stuff? "Daystar, we have to carry everything ourselves anyway," I told him, as politely as I could. "What difference does it make?"

"I don't think that's what Telemain meant," Daystar insisted. "There are all sorts of ways to lose things in the Caves of Chance if you aren't paying attention, but if you have something in your hand all the time and never set it down it's less likely to disappear."

"If you really believe that, you'd better carry the sword," I said. Though I was pretty sure wild horses couldn't have gotten the thing away from him at this point. I looked over at my gear, considering. "The only thing I don't want to lose is Nightwitch, and she can take care of herself." I decided.

"You're right," Daystar said. He was looking at the sword in his hand miserably. Probably remembering the rules on how impolite it is to carry around a ready sword. Honestly, considering all of the stories about this place, I thought anyone walking through the caves ought to expect people to be a jumpy. Making allowances for these nervous travelers to maybe carry their weapons to make them feel better would be common courtesy from the cave people. But on the other hand I was still working on the whole politeness concept. Daystar was clearly conflicted so I offered him a way out.

"Are you sure this is necessary?" I asked. "Why can't you just wear it?"

"Magic things are particularly easy to lose here," he recited "and Mother told me to take care of this sword." Well that was decided. He tucked the sheathed sword under his arm.

"Let's go." He said, as he grabbed the silver lamp and the bundle Morwen had given him in the other hand and started forward.

The sense of the caves' magic hit as soon as we entered the tunnel. I'd felt it, slightly above ground, but just as a note of difference in the background of Enchanted Forest magic. It hadn't gotten much stronger down in the hole, until we started forward, at which point it hit all at once almost knocking me over. Being suddenly smacked in the face by strong earthy magic is bad enough but the caves' magic was particularly…disorienting. It was all so random. In the Enchanted Forest there'd been constant movement, power flowing through everything on multiple levels, weaving in and out of each other. It was unfathomable and mysterious but there was a pattern too it. The caves had all of the complexity and layers but had apparently found the idea of a pattern too confining. Energy danced about wildly: following patterns that zigzagged like lightning, or cut off randomly and started up as if nothing had happened halfway across a room, or simply appearing and disappearing in flashes. And none of it was the same flavor of magic. Hundreds of different whirs and buzzes flickered about, dancing and blending and whirling off to make new combinations. It made trying to follow the windy, rocky path somewhat of a challenge.

I was trying to sort out where the shifting magics ended and the shifting colors of the crystal walls began when Daystar stopped with an automatic apology. The dragon ccomplained but quickly got distracted by the shininess of the walls, and simply started climbing them to get a better view or something. Daystar moved to the opposite edge of the cave.

"Where are we supposed to go from here?" I asked, not that I'd be much good with directions, but it would be nice to feel like I sort of knew where we were going.

"This must be the Cave of Crystal Lights," Daystar said "Telemain said to walk straight across. There ought to be three passageways on the other side, and we want to take the left one."

"I see them," the dragon called down. It climbed down and sat to give us the full description. "They aren't straight across. They're over that way a little." It waved toward the right.

Yeah, because the dragon's sense of direction had steered us so well before.

"I think we should follow Telemain's directions." Daystar said with as much tact as possible

I nodded. I did not want to get lost in dark, randomly changing, famously-dangerous caves. Daystar agreed. We actually went back and double checked that our route was right four times. Every time we did the dragon muttered about how it could have just told us the way and that we were wasting time. I was about ready to set the silly things tail on fire.

But it was worth it to see the shocked look on the dragon's face when we got to the three openings on the other side. "Where did these come from? These aren't the ones I saw!"

Gee who would have thought that the famously changing Caves of Chance would play tricks on your eyes. "Well, then, it's a good thing we followed Telemain's directions," I snapped. "Otherwise, we'd be lost. Come on, let's go." I stalked through the left-hand passage.

It was a very good stalk too, that was ruined by thump behind me. I turned around to see Daystar, backlit from the Crystal Cave, scrabbling around on his knees.

"Ow"

"What happened now" I asked, giving him a hand up.

"I tripped" he replied, drily "I've still got the sword, but I dropped the lamp. Where is it?"

"I don't see it." If it had gone out it wouldn't be easy to find, and I really, really didn't want to be stumbling around these caves in the dark.

"It can't be very far away," Daystar said quickly.

We spread out, moving in opposite directions to blindly grope around on the floor. There was a faint glow coming from behind a rock in the corner.

"There it is!" Daystar called from the opposite corner. How did he see it from all the way over there?

I turned to find him facing the opposite direction "No, it's over here," I told him, bending down and holding up the lamp for him to see for himself. "It's still burning?" Most lamps I knew would go out if you knocked them over, never mind tossed them halfway across a cave floor.

"It lights up more space than it ought to, too," Daystar told me."Morwen probably put a spell on it." He turned back to his dark little corner.

"Where are you going?" I asked

"I saw something over here, and I want to know what it is, especially since it obviously isn't the lamp."

"Aren't you not supposed to-"

"Here it is" Daystar said, ignoring me.

There was a flash of magic and a geyser of sparks erupted right where Daystar was sitting. He scrambled back with a yelp but the fountain just got bigger and brighter. The sparks creeping closer and closer. We ran for the left-hand tunnel. Nightwitch wasn't quite fast and enough and hissed as a spark hit her. I grabbed her without breaking stride and didn't stop until we were halfway onto the other side of the next room. My hands started shaking and I set both my cat and the lamp down before I broke either of them.

"Look what it did to my coat." Nightwitch grumbled, glaring at the other cave. "Fire stains are the worst to get out."

"What was that?" I gasped.

"I don't know. I was just trying to-" Daystar stopped, and stared at his right hand. "It went off when I picked up this." He help up a small gold key nestled among a few pebbles and some dirt.

"Now what?" I asked. Did we give it back or something?

"I felt something," He said. "Sort of like the sword when it's finding magic, but not the same."

"Is it magic?" the dragon asked.

"I don't know."

"Well, find out!" I snapped. "I thought that was what the stupid sword was for." He was flaming carrying the stupid thing for pity's sake.

He sighed a little juggled the stuff so he could to grab his sword while still holding the key. There was a moment of silence and then the key started to glow steadily.

"I knew it was magic!" the dragon declared, gleefully

"I don't feel anything from the sword, though," Dastar said , taking his hand off the sword and watching the glow die.

I shrugged, "So? The sword makes it glow, doesn't it? It has to be magic." It just meant it was a different sort of magic. At least that's what it meant for me. Why couldn't it be the same for the sword. Anyway the more important question was "What are you going to do with it?"

"I'm going to keep it, at least until we talk to Kazul," Daystar said. "She may know what it's for, or who it belongs to."

"It b-b-belongs in the c-c-cave," something bubbled from the darkness.

We all turned at that, scanning the corners and shadows for any sort of movement, without success.

"Who said that?" I demanded

"M-m-me. You b-better put that k-k-key back right away," came the same odd bubbling. Still, nothing moved in the shadows.

"Why?" Daystar asked.

"B-because it b-belongs there!" the voice said. The bubbling had turned into a sort of hiss. "Gug-give it to me, and I'll put it back."

This was getting ridiculous. "If you want it, you'll have to come out here where we can see you," I told it.

There was an odd bubbling sound that managed to sound sullen over to my left. I turned to see a blob of what looked like jelly squelch forward out of the shadows. It was black and gooey and only a foot or two shorter than me. Jelly should not get that big. Though considering the Caves of Chance this was probably one of the less weird creatures we could run into.

"There?" it said. "Now, gug-give me that key!"

Right, we were just going to hand it over "How do we know it's your key?" I asked

"It isn't my key. I just take care of it. Gug-give it to me!" I wasn't positive, but it sounded as if the jelly was having a temper tantrum. It was vibrating, bouncing up and down in a way that sent it into a constant wobble around the floor. It looked as ridiculous as it sounded.

The dragon, was fascinated, leaning to poke its head over my shoulder for a better view. "That stuff reminds me of something," it muttered. "I can't think what, though. What is it?"

"I am a quozzel." huffed the jelly, As if we were supposed to know what that meant,right. It leaned forward, trying to look down on us even though we all towered over it. "What are you?" It demanded.

"It's a dragon," I said, with a bit of a sneer. "Can't you" the oh-so-smart giant blob of jelly "tell?"

The quozzel froze. "There are n-n-no dragons under-gug-ground," it said with even more of a quaver to its . "None!" It glared at me, or, more accurately leaned angrily in my direction, then started bobbing again. "You aren't a dragon. I want that k-k-key! It belongs in the cave, and it's g-going to stay there!"

"Of course she's not a dragon!" the dragon said. "I'm a dragon. And I've never heard of a quozzel before."

The quozzel froze again, bending to look up at the large, scaly dragonish owner of the voice "Glurb," it bubbled.

The dragon tilted its head to one side. "I don't think you're very polite," it said.

The jelly bubbled up, muttering unhappily as the dragon stared at it. Then the dragon's eyes lit up "I know what this reminds me of!" it said triumphantly. "Dessert!"

The dragon's head shot forward. The quozzel let out a shriek and disappeared into the darkness just in time to avoid being eaten. The dragon ran after it, knocking Daystar and me out of the way and flaming into the darkness. We heard several squishing noises, then an angry snort from the dragon, followed closely by a small puff of flame that lit up the dark end of the tunnel. I got a brief glimpse of the dragon before the light died, but I didn't see the quozzel anywhere. There was and then a thoroughly annoyed growl

The dragon returned, stalking back into the circle of lamplight. "It got away." It grumbled.

"Well, I'm glad it's gone," It had felt _mean_, like the curse Morwen had pulled off Daystar. I frowned. Probably not good for dragons to eat curses, or their close cousins. "You shouldn't go around trying to eat things all the time, especially if you don't know what they are. I wouldn't be surprised if quozzels were poisonous or something."

"Dragonsbane is the only thing that poisons dragons, and that quozzel wasn't polite, and I'm hungry," the dragon said. It shook its head. "Wizards taste good, but they aren't very filling."

Daystar hurriedly got out some of the meat pies and handed them to the hungry dragon. The dragon sat down to to eat them right away.

"We ought to keep going," I told it. It could eat and walk at the same time right? "Suppose that quozzel thing comes back?"

"I don't think it could really do much to us," Daystar said reassuringly. "It didn't look very dangerous."

"You can't always tell by looking," I said. Mean, magical, and obsessed with the little key Daystar had just put in his pocket. It sounded dangerous enough to me. "And if that marmalade mess wants the stupid key badly enough, it'll think of something."

"Marmalade is orange," Daystar grinned at me. "The quozzel looked more like blackberry jelly to me. And I still don't think it's going to come back. Not while the dragon is around."

"Well, you'd better carry that key in your hand," I said "I think it's important", after all it had gotten a different reaction out of the sword. That had to mean it was special didn't it? "And it might fall out of your pocket or something."

"All right, but you'll have to keep the lamp. I don't think I can manage the sword and the things Morwen gave us and the lamp, and still hold the key." He handed me the lamp and shuffled things around to free up a hand to dig in his pockets.

"You won't have to juggle things until we start walking again," I pointed out, still holding onto the lamp.

"I'm done," the dragon announced. "Where do we go now?"


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Daystar lead us forward turning off on alternating left and right forks as they appeared in our path. I was on edge, expecting a quozzel attack at any moment. I actually jumped at my own reflection in a cave with huge black mirrors (in my defense it was more a prepping for an attack sort of jump than a I'm-so-terrified-eek jump) and nearly fried the blue ooze coming off some slimy grey moss in another cave, because I thought they'd been the quozzel sneaking up behind us.

The third time I jerked my head around, Nightwitch jumped on my shoulder with a pointed sigh. "If you're going to keep twitching like that, I'm getting out of fire-ball range."

"We're in the caves of chance" I muttered back" I think I have a right to be twitchy.

"As long as it doesn't set my tail on fire." She sniffed, then her eyes popped wide and she drooped onto my shoulder. "Never mind."

The cave ahead looked like a giant oven; orange light poured out of it, distorted by waves of heat. Tail scorching was a definite possibility. So was death since our tunnel came out onto a lovely narrow path halfway up one side with a charming one hundred foot drop waiting if we happened to lose our footing.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" I asked

"I am now," Daystar said with what sounded strangely like relief. "This was the last cave Telemain mentioned. Once we're on the other side, it shouldn't take long to get to the castle."

"We have to get to the other side first," I pointed out. "That doesn't look very safe."

"The Caves of Chance aren't supposed to be safe," Daystar said. "I'm surprised we haven't run into something a lot more dangerous than the quozzel."

"I suppose-Nightwitch!" I tried to catch her but I was too late. My kitten took a flying leap off my shoulder and darted down the path.

"My fur is singing while you waste time. Come on!" she called.

I sighed. "Well, now we have to go across."

Daystar offered to go first again, but since it was my stupid cat I won this time. Probably getting clawed for trying to catch her had dampened Daystar's enthusiasm for running after her. Or the narrow ledge over the hundred foot drop had done the trick. I kept my back to the wall, edging sideways with the lantern out in front of me. It was a good idea that didn't really work. Halfway across the black dust of the cave had completely coated the glass, decreasing its pool of light into a sad little puddle. I tried to wipe it off only, to find that I, too, was covered in the stupid black powder. When we made it to the other side Nightwitch burst out laughing at the black-coated versions of Daystar and me. The dragon of course, was completely unaffected because apparently nothing sticks to scales. So instead it sat there looking smug, while Daystar and I tried, unsuccessfully, to brush the dust off each other. Once our coating of dust had gone down to a mere dusting we set off again.

"How much farther is it?" I growled, trying to wipe the filth from the lantern with my somewhat cleaner sleeve.

"I don't know," Daystar replied "But it shouldn't take much longer."

"I hope not," said the dragon. "I don't like this tunnel."

"Why not?" I asked

"It isn't finished," the dragon said.

It seemed to have a point. I'm not an expert on caves but in all the other ones we'd been through the floor was worn smooth unless it had some decorative stalactites or death trap or magical weirdness. This cave had a bunch of rough, ordinary rocks sticking up everywhere. It was smaller too, barely big enough to fit the dragon in the main passage. And something felt off about it. A hint of magic, I thought, recent and familiar. I glanced up, trying to locate the source, and saw cracks webbing through the entire ceiling. Something shifted and a chunk broke off the cracks tumbling down towards Daystars head.

"Daystar, look out! I yelled. He flinched and the rock sailed just past his head, A rain of pebbles followed and the ceiling began to make ominous creaking noises. A large rock fell out of the ceiling, just missing my head. A rain of pebbles followed and the ceiling began to make ominous creaking noises.

"Get back!" he shouted, dropping Morwen's bundle to shove me towards the exit.

I had not been expecting that one (shoving isn't polite), so instead of running for my life like I should have I just stumbled.

"Run!" Nightwitch yowled jumped all the way onto the dragon's nose then leapt off into the darkness beyond.

I tried to follow. I was scrambling to get back up, muttering Morwen's protection spell as fast as I could. Daystar was shoving me and the dragon was yelling something and I could hear more rumblings. Then it all came down on us.

I woke up in pain. I couldn't quite couldn't quite place where exactly I just ached all over. I groaned tried to make sure my fingers and toes worked. There was some sort of rumbling or bubbling in the background far off and then a voice, Daystar though he sounded angry. At least he was okay.

"Daystar?" my voice sounded weak. I coughed and tried again. "Daystar, what happened?"

"The quozzel made the tunnel cave in," he said. "It was trying to kill me so it could get the key. Are you all right?"

The quozzel , of course. That had been the magic I'd felt earlier. I started to sit up without thinking "Of course I'm-" I began. I tried to push myself up and a lightning bolt of pain shot up my right arm. "Yow!" I gasped. I sat up slowly cradling the arm against my chest, feeling with the other arm. Sure enough there was a little bump that screamed as soon as my fingers brushed it. "I think I broke my arm," I said.

"Can I do anything to help?" Daystar asked.

"You can keep that stupid quozzel away from me!" I snapped. "I'll be fine as long as I don't move much." At least that's what they'd told when I'd fallen out of the tree. Well they'd also wrapped it up somehow and given me a sling, but I didn't know how to do any of that stuff and I was betting Daystar didn't either. So not moving was just going to have to work for now.

I'd just have to make sure Nightwitch understood not to jump onto that shoulder anymore. Where was she anyway?

"Where's Nightwitch?" I asked. "And the dragon?"

"I don't know," Daystar said worriedly "I haven't seen them since the tunnel fell in."

I stared at him. How many rocks would it take to take out a dragon? It was too big for that. But Nightwitch wasn't A hundred horrible images flashed through my mind. Those stupid rocks had broken my arm and kittens are a lot smaller and more delicate than humans. If one solid rock had hit her….

Rage ripped through me, giving me energy and dulling the pain. "You miserable little blob!" I snarled glaring at the quozzel. It could have just stolen the key, tripped Daystar and squelched away. But instead it had tried to kill us all. Not because we were all threats, just because we were there.

"If anything's happened to Nightwitch because of your stupid cave-in, I'll-I'll melt you into a puddle!" I'd do worse, but I was too angry to think about what that would be.

"You'd better not try," the quozzel said, bouncing nervously. "The w-w-wizard will gug-get you if you do!"

"What wizard?" Daystar demanded. I didn't care I'd take them all on and their pet jelly mold.

"I can't tell you." It burbled.

"Oh no?" I asked. I stood up, trying not to disturb my arm, but wanting to tower over the thing. "I guess I'd better just melt you, then, and save some time." I probably could have too. I felt the fire on the edge of my senses, ready to respond to my anger.

"No-n-no!" said the quozzel. It shrunk away from me.

"Then you'd better tell us what wizard you're talking about," Daystar said.

"The one who gug-gave me the key," the quozzel said unhelpfully. "He told me to take care of it until he came back for it."

"What does it matter, they're all after us anyway. " I muttered "We'll meet up with him sooner or later and he'll probably start speechifying the minute he sees the key."

Daystar ignored me

"How long ago was that?" he asked.

"A long time," the quozzel said. "He never came back, so it's still m-m-my responsib-b-bility."

"Not if I melt you, it isn't," I reminded it.

"What is it the key to?" Daystar said. "And why did the wizard leave it here?"

"D-d-don't know," the quozzel bubbled sullenly. "He said people would come look for it and try to take it. That's why he wanted m-m-me to look after it. You aren't supposed to take it. No one's supposed to take it b-b-but the wizard!"

"What did this wizard look like?" Daystar asked.

Pretty much like every other wizard we'd met: old guy with long white beard and hair, in specifically blue-and-gray robes. Daysta got more detail about height and age and facial features but it didn't sound like someone wither of us had met before. Then again I hadn't exactly been taking notes when I'd met most of them.

Besides "How do we know this stupid thing isn't lying?" I said. "I think we should-" there was another rumbling echoing down one of the tunnels. "what's that?"

"I think something's coming," Daystar said, "You stay where you are." He snapped at the quozzel.

I shot him a look. "I know something's coming, but what is it?"

He simply turned in the direction the noise was coming from. There was a light coming down the tunnel, outlining a large group of people trying to fit through one of the side tunnels. Though, that was proving to be kind of difficult . I could actually hear them bumping into each other, what with all the metal pipes and picks they were carrying. The noise turned into one big metal clamor as they tried to squeeze through. Fortunately they were all rather short, otherwise getting through the tunnel. Too short, actually, for normal humans.

"Dwarves!" Daystar cried suddenly. It echoed off the walls and down the corridor. Two of the closer dwarves turned to us suddenly. One of them d started shouting.

I was pretty sure Daystar had just managed to offend someone

"Terrific!" I muttered "What'd you have to do that for?" They were all coming towards us now, making it easier and easier to see how sharp and pointy those picks looked.

"They'd have seen us anyway," Daystar replied. "I mean, we'd be sort of difficult to miss, with the key lighting up the tunnel like this. And maybe they'll help us. Dwarves do, sometimes; Mother had me study a whole lot of examples two years ago, after the prince came through looking for the glass coffin."

"I thought princes looked for glass shoes, not coffins," I said, squinting into the darkness. Something was odd, I could vaguely make out a shadow in the lead but the dwarves were carrying their torches behind it, turning it into one big, flickering outline. "They're coming this way. What's that in front of them?"

Nightwitch shot out of the darkness waving her tail like a banner. "You're alright! We went to get a rescue to clear the tunnel. You sort of ruined it by being okay but I think I'll forgive you this time. "she meowed grandly" and wound herself eagerly about my legs.

"I 'm glad to see you, too," I grinned. I tried to reach out to pet her with my good arm, but simply bending down sent a jolt of pain zipping up by arm. "Sorry, kitten; you'll have to wait to get petted until somebody does something about this stupid arm."

Nightwitch stopped rubbing and looked up. "No petting? But I brought help."

"Well, I said I was sorry," I said. "I didn't ask to break it." I waved at my injured arm.

Nightwitch hmmphed and flopped down at my feet. "I leave you alone for one moment..." she muttered with a smug grin.

The dragon stepped out of the flickering shadows and the key lit up its even more smug smile.

"Look!" It crowed. "I found a lot of dwarves!"

"I see that," Daystar said. He turned to try to bow to all of the dwarves that now formed a neat circle arroun us. "My name is Daystar," he said formally "and that's Shiara. We're very pleased to meet you."

"Hold on just a minute? one of the larger dwarfs called. "I didn't say I'd help. Not exactly. I said I'd look at this cave-in of yours."

"Me too," said another voice towards the back. "Proper mess it looks."

"Not natural," said a female dwarf, standing next to me. Then she turned to glare at me.

I glared back "How do you know?" I demanded.

"We made this tunnel," still another dwarf said. "And dwarf-made tunnels don't just fall in."

"Not ever," agreed the first one.

"Of course not," Daystar said calmly. "The quozzel made the tunnel cave in. It was trying to stop us from getting out of the Caves of Chance."

"The quozzel?" the dragon perked up. "That dessert thing is back again?"

"You can't eat it until we find out if it knows anything else," Daystar warned it."Besides, you had plenty of lunch."

The dragon sighed. "I suppose so. All right, I'll wait."

Daystar turned back to the dwarfs. "We'd be very much obliged to you if you would help us get through this, or show us a way around it, or something," he said."

"Now, why should we do that?" one of them said.

"I don't see any reason," said another.

"Lot of work for nothing," added a third.

"And I don't like dragons!" called a dwarf, at this point I was beginning to lose track which was which.

So was the dragon. It glared at the pack of dwarves in general. I grinned then a flicker of motion caught my eye. I turned and saw the quozzel moving towards Daystar's unprotected back as the moron leaned down to try to talk to the dwarves.

"Daystar! Behind you!"I yelled.

Daystar whirled around, raising his sword in one motion. The quozzel leapt for his face shooting out vicious purple ooze. Daystar ducked away from the quozzel, slashing at the ooze as he moved. The quozzel shrieked in frustration as it landed with a splat.

"I'll kill all of you!" it screeched. "Key stealers! Cannibals! I'll kill you d-d-dead!"

I tried to gather up my magic, just a few moments ago I was sure I could roast this little blob to ash. I should be able to do it again, help Daystar and end this little blob. After all it had just threatened to kill my friends. All of us. The way it had tried to do before. I held onto that, let it bloom into a fury that melted away little details like a small army of dwarves surrounding me or the pain of a broken arm. My hair burst into flames and I felt myself grinning as I wheeled on the pathetic little desert. I had power now let it try to hurt my friends. The quozzel noticed me, it jerked in surprised, inching backwards. I pointed at it, ready to fry it where it quivered, and it bolted.

I gotten it anyway but Daystar ran after it. Terrified that I'd hit him, I let go of the fire all at once. The quozzel made it to the wall and disappeared inside like a ghost. Its magic raced up the rock walls, spreading out fanning out poisonously. The walls creaked ominously.

"Run!" Daystar yelled. I was already moving before he finished the word. But the rocks had already started falling. Pebbles and dirt stung my eyes and I could hear rocks shifting right above me. One must have fallen because suddenly Daystar swung his sword right above my head. I turned to demand what the flaming fires he was doing and felt my steps slowing. Magic was welling up from within the earth, powerful, old and alive. It wound up into the ceiling, catching the rocks as they were trying to fall, so that the entire roof of the cave seemed lower. Then, it pulled at the quozzel's magic, breaking it apart or simply yanking it out of the stones and pulling it away. The whole cave shook with one giant rumbling surge of magic and then everything stopped. A rock bounced off the wall in the sudden quiet absence of creaking and rumbling. The entire room stood, stunned.

"Are you all right?" asked breaking the silence

"That's a stupid question," I told him. After everything we'd just seen or maybe I'd just seen. "My arm is broken!" I'd snapped.

"I mean, you didn't get any more hurt than you were already, did you?" he corrected

"No," I glanced down to verify and noticed the rock that I was pretty sure had nearly brained me. I looked back at Daystar with a smile. "Thanks."

He gaped at me. "Um, you're welcome," he sputtered and quickly looked away, busying himself with his sword.

I shook my head with a faint smile and sank to the ground, spent. Without the adrenaline of running for my life or vengeful fire magic energy, all I wanted to do was find a nice comfortable spot to sit for a month. And maybe a pillow. I wondered if any of our supplies had survived.

Daystar was busy asking the unhelpful dwarves for help "Excuse me, but do any of you-" he began to ask the dwarves then stopped. I looked back to see what the was the matter and saw all seven dwarves huddled in close to Daystar, staring at his sword.

"Now, why didn't you think to mention you had that?" one of them said.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

They couldn't be serious. What did they want a formal introduction to the sword when he was presenting the rest of us? "He's been holding it since before you got here!" I said slowly. "Why should he have mentioned it?"

"It would have saved a lot of bother," one of the female dwarves said, sounding annoyed

"Time, too," said another.

"Inconsiderate, I call it."

Yeah well you know what else was inconsiderate? Refusing to help people who'd just been caught in a cave-in in one of their tunnels. My arm started to throb painfully and I tried to ignore it. With such hospitality and openness it truly was a shock that we hadn't volunteered the fact that we were carrying a sword that a war was being fought over.

"Well, not inconsiderate, exactly," one of the more cautious dwarves corrected "A little thoughtless, maybe."

"Thoughtless?" The dragon looked puzzled. "Why? What difference does it make if Daystar has a sword?"

'"A sword is one thing. That sword is something else again."

"Someone should have told us."

"Someone should definitely have told us."

"After all, we aren't elves."

"Of course you're not elves," the dragon said. "Anyone can see that! What does that have to do with Daystar's sword?"

"It's not his sword!" one of the dwarves objected. "It's the King's!"

"And elves can recognize it just by looking at it," a female dwarf said in a resentful tone.

"So can some other people," another muttered.

Like every other person we'd met so far. Okay, they'd seen the sword do magic but so had the dwarves. Anyone with an ounce of magic sensing should be able to feel that sort of power.

"But not dwarves." One of them said, as if in answer

"Unless we get a good look at it, of course." Another corrected. "Which we couldn't, because of the light, not to mention the fact that you were standing there talking and distracting our attention."

"Which is why you should have mentioned it," a dwarf finished smugly.

Or maybe why they should have been a little more observant. Maybe come closer to us, or even helped when the quozzel attacked. I hissed out a breath, the throb in my arm was getting worse. I cradled it against me with my good arm.

"I didn't mention it because there seem to be a lot of people who want it," Daystar said, diplomatically. "One of them is a wizard."

He didn't get to say more because the dwarves all started speaking over each other at once.

"Of course there are a lot of people who want it!"

"Particularly wizards."

"It's the King's sword, isn't it?"

"Maybe it isn't; he hasn't said."

"It has to be the King's sword, silly. There aren't any other swords that the earth obeys."

"What about Delvan's blade?"

"That's not a sword, it's an ax."

"And the earth doesn't obey it, it just shakes a lot."

"So this has to be the King's sword."

"Wait a minute!" Daystar had to call out to be heard. "What do you know about my sword?"

"It's the King's sword," one of the dwarves declared and another dwarf shushed him just as loudly. A dwarf near the front of the crowd stepped forward and bowed.

"We follow the sword," she said, as if that meant anything to us.

The other dwarves all smiled and nodded and did nothing of use. Daystar looked them over expectantly, probably foolishly thinking they'd actually explain something. I snorted. Daystar gave up.

"If you aren't going to tell me about my sword, could one of you do something about Shiara's arm?" he asked. "And after that, we'll be going."

"Going where?" the dragon said.

I levered myself up on my good arm and stood up.

"We have to find another way out of the Caves of Chance," Daystar told it. "I don't really think we can dig through this one."

"That will not be necessary," said the dwarf standing next to him. "Had we known you were the Bearer of the Sword, we would not have objected to your request."

"Not at all," said the dwarf on his other side. She turned and waved at the others. "Lord Daystar requires this tunnel cleared. Begin"

Since when was he a lord? I wondered dully. My tired good arm drooped slightly and a fresh lance of pain wiped the thought from my mind. While I was standing there battling my desire to use a few very impolite but remarkably stress relieving words a dwarf came up to me and bowed.

"I am Darlbrin," he declared.

"That's nice," I managed in a semi-normal tone.

To his credit Darblin noticed my problem. "I have some skill at mending things," he said, and bowed again. "If you will permit it, I would like to examine your arm." He looked up nervously "To see if I can mend it." He finished.

And here I'd been thinking he just wanted to paint a picture, I thought with an eye roll. But I followed him over to a quieter side of the tunnel, away from the clearing work.

"Dwarves are really good at healing things. Morwen says so. People go to them for cures all the times and if they come back whatever they have always works. So you'll be all right. Right?" Nightwitch meowed anxiously.

I tried to smile comfortingly at her, but I wasn't terribly convincing. She rubbed at my ankles, purring but the moment I turned to sit down she looked worried again. So, I worked to keep my wincing to a minimum as Darlbrin poked at my arm.

"Yes, I can help this." He decided. "Nothing is sticking out and its only two pieces. I won't need extra tools."

He met my eyes seriously. "I do have to put the bone back in place though." He warned me.

I gulped, but nodded, trying to prepare for the pain.

"And…" I felt his fingers hovering right over the bump, there was a frisson of magic, and a small explosion of pain. I closed my eyes. "Done."

I opened my eyes. "That's it?" I'd been expecting it to be worse. Last time it had been so painful I actually couldn't scream.

"I tried to dull the pain some." Darlbrin said helpfully. He started uncapping two jars of goop that smelled like a more minerally version of one of Morwen's brews and buzzed with magical energy.

"Wait a second." I covered my broken arm protectively with the good one. "What did you just do? How did you numb my arm and what are those?" I demanded. Yes, the guy was helping, trying to heal me and all, but I don't like people putting enchantments on me when I don't know what they do.

Darlbrin blinked, set down the jars, and carefully held up a scrap of shiny grey-white cloth.

"Murk spider silk. They live nearby, we have a treaty with them. We give them drink, they give us silk. The silk numbs whatever it touches, that how the spider's trap food. We use it so people don't scream too much." He set it down slowly.

I nodded. He picked up the two jars. "I made these. This one decreases swelling. And this one encourages bones to heal. Actually it was made for wood to join again but it's the same principle. It works on bone too. They need to go on skin as close to the break as possible."

"Okay" I muttered. "Just do it."

I held my tongue as he slathered first one goop and then the other halfway up my arm. Then he wrapped my arm in more of that spider silk.

"I don't want my entire arm numb." I objected.

"It won't" Drablin assured me " You're too big for it to work well over a large area, it'll dull the pain though. It's strong and sticky so it's good for bracing breaks like these."

"Just how many spiders do you have to make all this stuff?" I demanded as he continued to wind it around my upper arm.

"No one's ever tried to count. They're rather large spiders." Darblin responded.

Oh, that was a comforting thought.

He sat back to examine his work and nodded. "That should work. Try moving."

I eyed him suspiciously but waved my arm a little. He'd been right, the pain did feel better.

"Good. The sheath will keep you from making any big quick movements. You should be able to move it comfortably by tomorrow. But the bones will still be weak for a while so do not try anything sudden for a week and certainly no lifting anything heavy."

That was a lot quicker predictions then I remembered for when I'd broken my arm falling out of the apple tree. Everyone had been horrified whenever I moved my arm a month after.

Dalbrin excused himself to go get the final paste my arm needed. I practiced my movement by lifting Nightwitch into my lap for the petting she'd been denied.

"All better I assured her." Then I turned to watch the progress on the tunnel. Daystar was closer, talking to a dwarf covered in rock dust, I tried to listen in and caught the words "other side" and "my job" before the dwarf walked away.

I tucked Nightwitch into the crook of my good arm and stood up

"Did he say they're almost finished?" I asked Daystar hopefully "Wonderful! I can't wait to get out of here."

He turned and looked me up and down then stared at me very intently.

"Well, what are you staring at?" I demanded.

"I wasn't staring," he said. "I was just checking to see if you were all right."

Darlbrin came back with a bottle of something and bowed to Daystar

"Not quite all right. But not bad, not bad at all." He responded.

"I wouldn't call a broken arm 'not bad,'" I muttered. Not bad was a few scrapes and bruises. Things that didn't take months to heal.

"Oh, I didn't mean that!" Darlbrin said hastily. "I was referring to the mending."

"I'm sure you did a very good job," Daystar assured him. "And I really appreciate it."

Well it wan't painful anymore "I suppose I do, too," I mumbled. "Thanks."

"It isn't really mended yet, you know," Darlbrin said, getting nervous in front of Daystar. "People aren't as easy to fix as ax handles. It'll be a month before you can take the sheath off." He finished, turning to me.

"Yes, I know. I've had a broken arm before." Last time it had been at least twice as long but I'd as soon skip the sheath business altogether. It had been an annoyance that I'd had to be careful of whenever I took a bath or tried to light a fire and made it absolutely impossible to scratch anywhere that itched. I doubted spider silk would be much better in that area

"Then you're very welcome!" The dwarf beamed. "Happy to be of service!" He bowed to each of us, all eagerness and deference now that Daystar was here. I somewhat suppressed, a snort; at least it was quiet enough that Dalbrin probably didn't hear it.

Daystar gave me a look, but let it go at that. "I didn't know you'd broken your arm before." He said

"That's because I didn't tell you about it," I said. Daystar looked at me, expectantly. I sighed. "I was stealing apples from the Prince's gardens and fell out of the tree, all right?"

"Oh. What prince, and why were you taking his apples?"

"The Prince of the Ruby Throne," He'd probably never heard of the man before. "He had a house and garden just outside town, and he never picked any of the apples. He just left them to rot. And I was hungry. So I sneaked over the wall and climbed the tree, but there was a big snake in it, with wings. So I fell out of the tree and broke my arm, and the snake went away."

"Shiara," Daystar sounded shocked, then he sighed and explained. "Shiara, the Prince of the Ruby Throne raises magic apples. All kinds of people have been trying to steal them for years and years, but he's a very powerful sorcerer, and there are hundreds of spells protecting his gardens."

Well no one had ever mentioned that before. "That must be why he was so upset. I'm pretty sure he was the one who told the Society of Wizards about me." Really he was the only one in town wizards would takes seriously "I thought it was a lot of fuss to make about a few apples."

Daystar stared at me "I don't want to be nosy or anything," he said "but I'd really appreciate knowing if there's anyone else who's mad at you."

I didn't think it was that bad, I've made plenty of people angry but most of them wouldn't chase me. "I don't think so," I said, trying to list people in my head just to be sure.

"Good." Daystar said "I don't think I want any more people chasing us. Particularly people with powerful magic. It wouldn't be so bad if you could use your fire magic."

I would have bristled at that if the dragon hadn't interrupted.

"She can!" it burst in, making both Daystar and I jump "She burned the dragonsbane, and she can make her hair burn."

"When did you see Shiara's hair burning?" Daystar asked. I'd actually been getting better at controlling that bit recently. The last time that had happened had when I met Daystar, which was only a few days ago but felt a lot longer.

"Just a few minutes ago," the dragon said. "You were fighting that dessert thing, so you might not have noticed."

Okay maybe I still had to work on control a little more. I felt my face heating up.. "I was trying to do something to the quozzel. I thought it would work because it worked on the dragonsbane." I admitted.

"It worked on the dragonsbane," Daystar said slowly. "And that first wizard, the one who made a water monster out of the stream-you did something to that monster, too. That's at least twice that you've made your fire magic work properly. Can you think of any others? Maybe we can figure out why it happens."

"She used it at the invisible castle," the dragon added. "The one where that other fire-witch lived."

"I did not!" I wished I had. "I didn't have time. We ran into the castle, and she came out, and bam! I was a statue."

The dragon leaned back smugly. "You said you wanted to know what the castle was, and then you did. That's fire magic, isn't it?"

Was it? Daystar had said it was. And – Morwen had talked about recognizing magic instinctively as a firewitch thing. So…"I suppose it is," I said, turning it over in my head.

"Then that's three," Daystar said. "Can you think of any more? Before you came to the Enchanted Forest, for instance?"

I thought about it. I'd burned the head wizard's staff, but that was sort of in the forest and I hadn't really meant to do anything specific. At home, trying for specifics had resulted in maybe some smoke and a crushing sense of failure. Every time my powers actually worked, it had been at someone I was mad at. But I hadn't really meant to burn them or anything around them. It had always just sort of happened, fire unleashing without a specific goal in mind. But it had never really been what I wanted. That didn't count as magic working properly. "No," I said definitely. "Those are the only times I've ever gotten my magic to do what I wanted it to, ever."

"So it's only been happening since you came to the Enchanted Forest," Daystar said.

"And met you and got bitten by that stupid sword," I added, otherwise I would have burned that stupid bush to the ground. I realized what I'd just said and looked at Daystar. He met my eyes. The sword!

"Not again!" he groaned "It can't be the sword alone, or you would have been able to do something to the quozzel. There has to be something else, too."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Did you do anything differently when it worked?"

"No." I'd wanted something to happen and it had happened. Okay I'd been furious at the time and trying to call up my powers but those were not new things.

"Well, then did you do anything differently right before it worked?" Daystar asked "There has to be some-" He stopped "Oh," he said.

"What is it?" I demanded.

"I think I know what makes your magic work." He said slowly and cautiously. He glanced at me and I sent him a look that assured him that if he stopped there I would light his hair on fire. "I think you have to be polite to people." He finished.

"That's stupid!" Of all the things he might bring up.

"It makes sense," Daystar insisted. "You apologized to me after we got out of the hedge, and then when the first wizard came along your magic worked against the snake thing. You were nice to the Princess because you felt sorry for her, and right after that you knew about the invisible castle. And you said thanks to Suz and apologized to Telemain, and then you made the dragonsbane burn."

And almost managed to make the quozzel burn to… a part of my brain continued. I ignore that part.

"But that other fire-witch wasn't polite!" I insisted. Practically the only part of being a fire-witch I'd ever gotten right was my flaming temper. If they had to be polite to use their magic they wouldn't have gotten a reputation for being rude in the first place!

"I didn't say all fire-witches have to be polite to people before their magic will work," Daystar said. "I only said your magic works that way. And I'm not positive. I mean, it could be something else."

"Well, I'm not going to go around being nice to people just so I can do magic!" I snarled

"I don't think it would work, anyway," Daystar said, miserably . "I mean, I don't think you can just say things. I think you have to really mean them. You meant it when you apologized to me, and when you were nice to the Princess, and when you were talking to Telemain."

"Oh, great," I muttered. "I bet this is all that stupid sword's fault." I glared at Daystar and his sword together, then turned my back.

I couldn't be nice all the time. I'd been trying to be nicer, yeah but it's one thing to decide that for yourself and another for some stupid magical sword to insist you have to be or you can't use your flaming magic. I wasn't going to try to force myself to see every jerk prince or monster that wanted to kill us as lovely people. I wasn't going to change like that. The stupid sword could bury itself in a cliff. People had to be worth my respect.

A dwarf was assuring Daystar that the tunnel was clear and ready for his use.

"Thank you very much," he responded. How could he do that? The dwarves had originally refused to help us, if it hadn't been for the stupid sword they'd been all set to leave us lost in the Caves of Chance. How could he thank them politely as if nothing had happened? _He_ probably meant it too.

"But I really ought to tell you: I'm not a lord." He added

"Of course not, my lord." The dwarf said with a bow "Is there anything else we can do for you?" I smirked. I liked her a little more for that.

"I'd appreciate it if we could borrow one of your torches," he said. "Our lamp got lost in the cave-in." Right I'd been carrying that when we'd been running. I'd forgotten about that in all the confusion.

"We would be pleased to offer you a torch," the dwarf said. "You can leave it by the exit, and someone will get it later. The exit isn't far."

We gathered up what we could find of Morwen's bundles. The dwarves had gathered most of up it in asmall pile opposite the rocks and there were a few odds and ends in the now cleared tunnel as well. No pillows, unfortunately, but some blankets and food, and some of my magic notes. We even found one of the bundling cloths. I wrapped the supplies we found in it, with the vague hope that some of Morwen's "supply regeneration" spell might still work. The dwarves bowed deferentially whenever we passed, but mostly kept out of our way.

One of them handed me a torch as we started. I wasn't exactly happy about using my one good arm to carry the light, especially since it meant Nightwitch had to walk on her own. After thinking she was dead I didn't want to let her out of my sight. But everyone else was carrying something and it really did make sense to have the fire proof person carrying the open flame. Nightwitch hopped down and rambled forward happily enough and Daystar reminded me it was only a short way to the end of the caves.

I thanked the dwarves along with Daystar and the dragon, although I'm not sure if it was genuine enough to satisfy the sword or if mere pleasantries like that even counted. We said good-bye, and they all bowed again, and we started off.

Whatever the dwarves' motivation and attitude was they really did know their stuff in terms of tunnel clearing . They'd left a few boulders by the walls but I was pretty sure the tunnel was wider than it had been before the cave in. The dragon, who'd been squeezing through in a few places, had plenty of room now.

It was a fairly easily walk initially. Then we started going up. First it was just the floor gradually slanting upwards. Then we reached the great curlicue of stairs. They curved up and away and around until we were all disoriented, and they never seemed to end. At the hundredth something stair I had to shift the torch so I could grab Nightwitch before she fell behind or just collapsed. By the time we reached the top I was ready to collapse.

The stairs ended right beneath a rather obvious trapdoor in the ceiling that looked to be made out of some very heavy stone. Daystar looked about as tired as I felt, but he went up and gave it a shove. It didn't move.

"It's too heavy." He gasped and fell back to lean against the wall.

"Really?" said the dragon. "It doesn't look so bad."

I looked back. The dragon did look a lot perkier than either of us mere humans, plus it was twelve feet tall and a dragon.

"It probably isn't too heavy for you." Daystar agreed "Why don't you try it?"

Daystar and I squeezed against the side of the stairs to give the dragon room to climb past us. It ducked into the small space under the trapdoor and set its shoulders against the stone it could climb past us. It's tail lashed back and forth, almost knocking There were a couple of minute's worth of grunts, and the dragon's tail whipped back and forth, almost knocking Daystar into me. We both decided it would be best to retreat a few steps. So all we heard were the dragons grunts, some grating of stone, and then a horrible shriek like bending metal. Half of the dragon disappeared into the newly uncovered hole in the ceiling. It started to climb up more and froze

"Uh-oh," it said, sounding genuinely nervous.

"What's the matter?" I called. I didn't really want to meet something that could make a dragon nervous.

The dragon didn't answer, it didn't climb up anymore or move away, it just scooted to the side to give us room to climb up ourselves. Daystar and I looked at each other, moved to the top of the stairs and climbed out together. He had a hand on his sword, though he was carrying it under his arm to hold all the bundles, I was backing him up, ready to attack with the torch if necessary. Nothing attacked us.

We climbed out onto a small hill, squinting up at the sun just starting to sink below the trees. I glanced down to avoid the glare and was almost blinded by a sea of scales spread out beneath us. Surrounding the bottom of the hill, a couple hundred dragons were lounging in the sun. They were all staring at us expectantly.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

I gulped and looked over at Daystar. Maybe it was cowardly but I didn't think it would be a good idea to let me be the one talk to an army of enormous, deadly sticklers for politeness, besides he had the sword that everyone listened to. Daystar didn't look like he'd even noticed the dragon, he was busy staring at the castle shimmering in layers of utterly enormous magic not too far away in utter fascination. It was probably important, I decide, huge enchantments like that generally are, however we had more urgent matters to deal with. I poked him in the ribs. He looked down and swallowed hard. I saw his hand grip the hilt of the sword more tightly. Then he took a deep breath, stepped forward and bowed formally in all directions. He took another deep breath.

"Sirs and madams, I apologize most profoundly for intruding upon you in this fashion, and I hope we have not inconvenienced you in any way," he spoke loudly, his voice clear and carrying. "Nevertheless, I offer you greetings in the name of myself and my companions, and I wish you good fortune in whatever endeavors are most important to you."

The dragons stirred briefly, in acknowledgement, I guessed. A large but elderly looking gray-green dragon slid forward. "We greet you and wish you well," it said in a slightly reedy but obviously male voice. "May we know your names?"

Daystar bowed again," I thank you for your greeting," he said. "I am called Daystar, and my companions are Shiara and Nightwitch. This young dragon has graciously accompanied us for part of our journey." He gestured toward each of us. I gave a small bow, unsure of what I should really be doing. The dragon climbed the rest of the way out of the hole.

"Well met, Daystar," the old dragon rumbled. "We've been expecting you since early this afternoon."

"I'm sorry if I kept you waiting," Daystar said calmly. Though his hand tensed up again. "We had problems with some wizards, and a cave-in, and a quozzel, and I didn't really know you were all here."

"Of course not. Telemain only told Kazul yesterday that you were coming. Silly way to do things, making everyone gather in such a hurry." The dragon said, dropping the serious tone. He nodded at Daystar approvingly.

"Well, come along; no sense wasting any more time. You might as well bring the girl and the cat, too. This way."

The young dragon lifted its. "What about me?" Surrounded by all the other dragons it looked very young and small.

"You had better keep quiet," the older dragon said not unkindly. "You're in quite a bit of trouble already. I wouldn't make it worse if I were you."

"I don't have to keep quiet!" our dragon declared. "I found a princess, even if I did decide not to keep her, and I fought a knight and bit a wizard. I can talk if I want to!"

I couldn't have put my foot in it better myself. The crowd of dragons shifted slightly, glancing at each other with muttering some with irritation and others with vague approval. Then they're eyes moved back to rest on the dragon next to us. If there's one thing scarier than two hundred dragons looking at you, its two hundred dragons looking at you with annoyance. I shivered and held onto Nightwitch for support, Daystar kept up a fairly good front though his eyes flicked everywhere at once. Our dragon attempted to stare down the older dragon, putting all its defiance into the glare. The older dragon just stood there, unblinking. The little dragon looked away first, turning a somewhat sulkier glare on the general crowd of dragons.

The old dragon seemed more amused than anything. "What do you think?" he asked the crowd.

There was one huge roar from all the dragons at once, which I did not take as a good sign. But before I could start running for the hills, the old dragon nodded at our little dragon. "You'll get your wish, then. Well, don't just stand there."

With that, it turned away and strode off. Daystar followed it and I raced to catch up with both of them.

"Where are we going?" I hissed to Daystar.

Apparently old dragons actually listen, because our guide turned back with laughter in his eye. "You're going to see Kazul."

"Oh," I said. Right, we were supposed to meet the King of Dragons, because Daystar had the sword the dragons were fighting the wizards for. We were on the same side, kind of. At least we both didn't like wizards. So they probably wouldn't kill us. Which were better odds than we'd gotten in the Caves of Chance or most of the Enchanted Forest. As long as Daystar actually came with us, I looked back to see him stopped in the middle of the pathway, staring at the ground. I could see our guide dragon disappearing down the path and there was something uncomfortably wrong about the magic in the air. I would have just dragged him along, but figured that I shouldn't be seen attacking the Great Sword Bearer in front of an army of dragons so I poked him in the arm.

He blinked, looked around, and started walking quickly after the elderly dragon toward the castle he'd been staring at earlier.

The enchantments around it were really powerful. They were actually visible in the air as shimmering bubbles. To me they were even more defined, the outer one glowing with green and silver with a tough defensive purpose, and the inner one burning a pale gold, clutching at the castle with a sullen possessiveness. There was something familiar about the second one but it was shadowed by the greener power around it.

Daystar was staring at them even more intently, obviously fascinated. He hardly even noticed when the older dragon stopped and had to back up to stop from knocking into him. The dragon didn't notice, just steered us over to the side and gave a slight, respectful bow of his head.

"King Kazul, these are the travelers who wish to see you. That one's Daystar, the other one's Shiara, and the cat is Nightwitch."

Daystar dropped into a deep formal bow and I copied him as quickly as possible.

I'm not one for ceremony but Kazul was the sort of dragon who commanded a certain amount of respect. Maybe it was the way she held herself, relaxed but ready to spring up at any moment in spite of the fact that she was one of the larger dragons. Or maybe it was because her green and silver scales were remarkably close to the hues in the massive protective enchantment I'd just been studying. But I think it was the eyes, full of canny intelligence, humor, and the absolute assurance that she could break you with one claw if you crossed her.

She smiled, backing up the threat in her eyes with an impressive display of teeth.

"So," she said, "you are the people Telemain sent through the Caves of Chance, and you have the Sword of the Sleeping King."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Daystar said, holding up the sword as evidence. "Mother gave it to me a few days ago, and I was told you would want to know about it."

"Ahhhhhh." Looking at the sword, Kazul's already golden eye started to glow, as if from a strong steady fire inside her. The sense of her power magnified.

It was a long minute before she spoke.

"And you got it here safely." She turned toward Daystar "Well done, Cimorene's son."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," he said. "You know my mother?"

Kazul smiled again, though more warmly this time. "Cimorene was the best princess I ever had."

What?!

Daystar's mother was a dragon's princess, a princess. So logically her son would be a prince.

I think I choked at that. My one friend was a prince. Why could life never be simple?

It helped some that Daystar seemed just as shocked as I was. In fact, he only one who didn't seem surprised was our little dragon. "So that's how she knew dragon magic!" it announced, pleased with itself.

Daystar bowed automatically "Excuse me, Your Majesty. I was, um, startled. Mother is a princess?"

"She certainly was once," Kazul said, looking down at the sword. "I'm glad she managed to keep it safe. We didn't have a lot of choice at the time, but it's still worrying to have to take a risk like that."

Daystar bowed again and Kazul gave him a vaguely amused look. "You needn't be quite so formal. I have a lot to tell you, and the conversation will go faster if you're not so stiff."

She turned back to our guide dragon. "It will be tomorrow morning." She declared "Let everyone know."

It must have made sense to him, since he nodded gravely and departed. Kazul rose as well, gesturing forward. "Come with me." She commanded

"What about me?" the little dragon asked.

Kazul sighed. "Yes, you may come, too." She towered over us as she walked passed. Daystar and I looked at each other, then followed.

It was easier moving with the King of Dragons in the lead. Every other dragon melted out of our way with a respectful bow. Daystar bowed back and I think I copied him automatically.

Daystar was royalty. It made sense in a way, all the education, and protocols and excessive politeness, those were all courtly things. He probably knew which fork to use at a huge dinner.

But he didn't act like a prince. They weren't as frequent as heroes, but a few of them had wandered through out village, asking for directions or seeking shelter for a night. They didn't really pay attention to people when they were there. Oh, sure they'd talk to get rooms and a few flirted with the prettier village girls, but you knew that they wouldn't remember anyone's name once they'd reached the next town. Their thoughts were always miles away on some far bigger, more important destinies. They were always so sure they were off to do something huge and all absolutely convinced that they knew better than everyone else.

Daystar wasn't like that. He'd been just as confused as me about what we were supposed to be doing and hadn't particularly bothered to hide it. And he _always _paid attention to people, to the point that it was flaming annoying how wrapped up he got in there messes. Not because of huge ideas of honor or duty, just because they needed help.

I glanced over at him. It was probably because he hadn't known he was a prince. I decided. Nobody had made a fuss about him or brought him big problems any bigger than household chores. But that was going to change. He knew what he was, and apparently so did a lot of important people around this area. Princes didn't get to have one adventure then go back to a nice quiet life, or tag along with a friend who was looking for fellow fire witches. Princes didn't have friends like me.

My steps sped up thinking about it, I heard Daystar pick up the pace, trying to catch up with me but I just kept moving. Common, angry, uncontrolled, potentially dangerous, rude, the words came easily. No, he wouldn't need a friend like that. Princes had friends like – I couldn't think of anything. The princes had always gone off alone to prove themselves with no help from others.

But that was ridiculous Daystar, may not have needed someone like me but he needed someone. If people were going to start throwing big problems his way he needed somebody to help him, maybe tell some of those people to go shove their problems. And the way things stood I was really all he had. 

We came to an outcropping of rocks on the side of the clearing, with a little cave inside. I looked back to see Daystar in the lead of our little group, hustling to catch up while still bowing to the dragons surrounding us. Prince or not, Daystar was still Daystar and Daystar was my friend. I decided. And anyone who objected to his choice of friends could stick their head in a lake.

With that settled I strode forward into the darkness ahead and stubbed my toe on a stone.I hopped backward, bumping into Daystar and nearly squashing Nightwitch in the process. My cat dodged to the side with an irritated _"_ Watch where you're going!"

"I suppose you human people need some light." Kazul said, somewhere up ahead

"Only if it won't be inconvenient," Daystar assured her.

"Not at all," Kazul replied, and added about five hissing words.

There was a rasping pulse of magic very similar to the green bubble upstairs, that echoed off the rocks. Then silvery light bloomed out of the rocks all around us, bright enough to make me squint.

Kazul was once again laying down, among some of the larger glowing stones

"Sit down," she told us, nodding toward a row of rocks. Daystar and I moved carefully over and took our seats. The little dragon pointedly sat down by the entrance. "I think you had better tell me your story first," Kazul said, giving Daystar her full attention. "Start at the beginning, when Cimorene gave you the sword."

"I'm sorry," Daystar said "I'll start with the sword if you want me to, but I think the beginning is the wizard."

"Wizard?"

"His name's Antorell, and he came to our cottage the day before Mother gave me the sword. Mother melted him."

"Oh, him." Kazul shook her head. "Sounds like he hasn't learned anything since the last time he tangled with Cimorene. Yes, start with him, by all means."

Daystar told it all, with maybe a few more details than last time. It certainly took longer to tell. As soon as we got to the point where we met our dragon the little dragon came out of its sulk to add its own opinions. At least until Kazul told it to either be quiet or go away.

And Daystar kept pausing whenever Kazul reacted. I think he was waiting for her to ask questions or demand explanations but she never did. She just sat there in silence taking it all in.

When he was finished Kazul was silent for a moment or two. "So." She said, thoughtfully, "You have accomplished a great deal in a short time, Daystar."

"It doesn't seem like much to me," Daystar said, humbly

"A great deal," Kazul murmured.

There was silence again. I shifted in my chair. Wasn't she going to say anything? He had told her about Suz and Telemain hadn't he? And the fact that the whole reason we'd come to her was so she sould tell us what was going on?

"Are you going to explain about Daystar's sword?" I demanded, finally.

"Shiara!" Daystar hissed.

I ignored him, and stared at Kazul. It was her was war we were in the middle of she could at least give us an explanation.

"No," said Kazul.

I had a couple choice things to say to that but Kazul continued before I could say any of them. "Or at least, I'm not going to tell you as much as you want to know. The Society of Wizards has more than a hundred spells hunting for that sword right now, and all of them depend on finding someone who knows what he's carrying. Fortunately, wizards' magic can't detect the sword itself. If Daystar finds out too much about that sword, we'll be up to our wings in wizards in no time. I don't want that to happen yet."

Well. That made sense. Why couldn't someone have just told us that earlier instead of dancing around like they were just about to give us the key information? It would have made all that wandering around blind less frustrating. Not much less frustrating, but a litte.

"I don't like wizards," the little dragon said suddenly. "They make me sneeze."

Kazul finally deigned to notice the little dragon, giving it one cool, measuring look. "I think it is time you made yourself useful," she said. "Go find Marchak and tell him to bring us dinner. Then go back to your teacher and apologize for running off, and after that you can start getting ready for tomorrow."

"What happens tomorrow?" the little dragon said suspiciously.

"We have a war," Kazul said. "Which you might live through, if you're ready for it. So go!"

That perked the little dragon right up "Yes, ma'am!" it said and disappeared out the door of the cave.

Kazul shook her head. "That is undoubtedly the most irritating grandchild I have."

I wanted to know what we were going to be up against, who the dragons were going to be fighting. But halfway through the question Kazul's statement caught up to me.

"Grandchild?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes, of course." Kazul sounded bemused. "It's an annoying youngster, but precocious children frequently are. I'm hoping it will grow out of it."

"Oh." I didn't think of dragon's having grandchildren, especially not important dragon kings, but why shouldn't they? They had offspring they cared about and those offspring had offspring. Why wouldn't they be doting grandparents? And, actually thinking of the little dragon as an irritating grandchild made quite a bit of sense.

"I enjoyed its company, most of the time," Daystar added helpfully.

"I'm glad," Kazul said.

Daystar picked up my interrupted question, with more politentess. "Um, if you wouldn't mind telling us, I'm sort of curious about whom you expect to be fighting tomorrow."

'You. Not us. Ideally' was the unspoken ending to that sentence, but Daystar was too polite to add that bit.

Kazul smiled at the sentiment "Wizards," she said. "There will be a few elves, of course, and maybe some ogres and trolls, but mostly we'll be fighting wizards."

"Oh. Of course." Ah yes, the great war between the wizards and dragons Telemain had mentioned

"I'm afraid you already are involved," Kazul said.

"Because of the sword?" I asked, thinking back to Telemain's other comment about the wars origins.

"Yes," said Kazul. "The sword and other things. It's a long story. I hope you're comfortable."

We both nodded, though I would have been fine sitting on burning coals as long as someone was finally going to explain what was going on. Kazul smiled again. "Well, then. There are two types of magic in the world: the kind you're born with, and the kind you get from something else. Dragons"-Kazul looked smug-"elves, unicorns, and fire-witches are born with magic." I hadn't known born magic was that unusual and didn't know how I felt to be in the same category as unicorns and dragons. But Kazul was continuing. "Ordinary witches and magicians get their magic from objects or from rituals involving things that have magic, which works quite well and doesn't upset things.

"Wizards, on the other hand, get their magic from everything around them that happens to have magic. Those staffs of theirs absorb little bits of it constantly, and the suction gets worse every time a wizard stores a new spell in his staff. That, by the way, is why dragons are allergic to wizards. Whenever those staffs get near us, they start trying to soak up some of our magic and we start sneezing."

"Telemain said something like that," Daystar mentioned

Kazul nodded. "Wizards' staffs create other problems, too."

"You mean those stupid wizards have been grabbing my magic every time they come near me?" I demanded. Outraged that they'd been taking magic I'd just realized I had

"Not yours," Kazul assured me. "Wizards can't use fire-witches' magic; it's too different. Their staffs explode if they try."

"Good?" It was actually a very appealing idea. Useful too "I wonder if I could learn to do that on purpose?"

Kazul gave me an approving look but continued on with her explanation. "Wizards get most of their magic from the Enchanted Forest, but if they absorb too much magic in any one place, things die."

"The moss!" Daystar burst in. "That's why it turns brown when a wizard's staff touches it."

"Yes," said Kazul. "The King of the Enchanted Forest had a way of reversing the process, taking magic out of a wizard's staff and putting it back in the forest, so wizards weren't too much of a problem until about seven teen years ago. The fellow who was Head Wizard then decided he was tired of stealing magic in bits, so he stole the tool that the King used to keep wizards from swiping magic in large chunks."

"The sword?" Daystar said. "Telemain said it was supposed to be used on wizards."

"Telemain talks too much," Kazul muttered. "Almost as soon as they had the sword, the wizards attacked the castle. They thought that without the sword the King would be easy to take care of. They forgot that the King of the Enchanted Forest has friends." She smiled fiercely.

"They wound up in a full-fledged battle, and while we were all fighting, the sword got stolen again. A few wizards managed to get inside the castle, but without the sword they couldn't actually kill the King. So they found some way of keeping him out of action while they hunted for the sword."

"They put the King to sleep?" Daystar sounded skeptical, I didn't see why. It was called the Sword of the Sleeping King, afterall.

"We don't know exactly what they did," Kazul admitted. "We know the King isn't dead, because the Enchanted Forest reacts very strongly when a King dies. We know they did something, though, because the seal they have around the castle wouldn't hold the King in by itself."

"You mean those shimmerings around the castle?" Daystar said.

"The outer one is ours," Kazul said. "The wizards put up a spell to keep everyone but themselves out of the castle, so we put up one to keep the wizards out. Without the sword, there wasn't anything more we could do."

Well that explained why the inner bubble felt so familiar. But if it ended there the wizards should still have the sword.

"Then how did Daystar's mother get hold of the sword?" I demanded.

Kazul smiled again. "Cimorene was the one who stole it back from the wizards in the first place. They've been trying to get hold of it again ever since. They'll show up as soon as we break through their barrier tomorrow, but by then we should be ready for them."

"Uh, you expect Shiara and me to help you fight wizards?" Daystar asked, shocked.

"Of course not," Kazul replied. "Shiara may help us if she wishes, but you, Daystar, will be going into the castle to break whatever spell the wizards put on the King seventeen years ago."


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

There was a moment of silence and I swear I heard Daystar gulp.

"Um, pardon me for asking, but, how exactly would I be able to do that." He asked, his voice was slightly strangled but still quite polite.

"The Sword of the Sleeping King can counteract wizard's magic. Tomorrow we will bring down our barrier to allow you to strike the wizard's barrier with the sword."

"I'm sorry, but won't the wizards notice that I've interfered with their spell."

Kazul smiled, showing her very impressive teeth. "Why yes they will, the moment you touch the spell. They'll all come running to stop you. However they will be met by two hundred dragons, a few squadron of witches, two clans of elves, and a great number of other Enchanted Forest residents who've objected to having their king confined in such a way. We've been waiting for this day for years. We'll keep them…occupied, while you find the king, he should be somewhere in the castle, and disenchant him."  
"Touching him with the sword will break that enchantment well?" Daystar asked, carefully.

"That's what it does." Kazul said with a nod. "It is his sword, it has an interest in bringing him back. Once he's awake the wizards should not be an issue."

"I understand the honor you're doing me by entrusting me with this task." His formality wavered but the cautious politeness remained. "But, since you've been preparing for this for years, and everyone's counting on disenchanting the king. Shouldn't someone more knowledgeable or more magical be given such an important task?"

"There is no one else." Kazul replied, bluntly. "We'll need everyone we can to hold the wizards off. Everyone with skill and knowledge have already assigned to duties that, frankly, they cannot be spared from. You haven't. Besides, you've managed to have quite a bit of success carrying the sword this far. I'm sure you'll be able to do this." The look she gave the distinct impression that he was the only one who could.

That shut Daystar right up.

I, however, was more interested in what Kazul had actually said.

"Wait a minute. No one else can be spared from their duties? You mean that you're sending Daystar in there alone? That's just stupid."

Kazul looked at me for the first time since we'd started talking about the war. A full grown dragon can do a pretty intimidating stare, and Kazul's could probably reduce most full grown dragons into whimpering piles of jelly, but I kept going anyway.

"He's on the most important mission in your whole war," I continued "at least someone should go with him to make sure he doesn't get killed."

Daystar was staring at me with an absolutely horrified expression. I ignored him.

"Are you volunteering to go with him?" Kazul demanded. "Because you are currently the only magical being or magic-user within three days walk who doesn't have a critical battle position."

"I didn't spend the last few days fighting off wizards through half the Enchanted Forest and putting up with that sword's nonsense just to get left behind for the for the big battle when things started getting interesting."

Kazul's face shifted, into what I'd swear was the dragon version of a raised eyebrow.

"You have a recently broken arm." She pointed out.

"Yeah. And that will be much less of a problem inside a castle looking for a sleeping king than in the middle of a mêlée between wizards and dragons."

We stared at each other across the cave. There was a glimmer of something in the big golden eyes and I lifted my head in challenge. For half a second I thought I saw a glint of amusement on her face, but it disappeared as soon as it came.

Finally she nodded, "You may accompany Daystar into the castle, if you wish to do so."

"Good." But I wasn't going to leave it there. "Where I'm safe, provided all of the dragons will be able to keep_ wizards_ from sneaking into the castle where the most important event is going on. They like to do that appearing trick, and once your enchantment's gone, what's to stop them from popping up in the middle of the castle kitchens."

Kazul's claws scraped on the rocks "We do have a bit of magic ourselves. I think we keep them contained for a little while." Her toothy smile made a re-appearance. "But, if they do show up what will _you _be able to do about, with one arm?"

I smiled back at her. "I am a fire-witch, fire's a rather long distance weapon, and all I'd have to do was point. Besides," my smile became a bit more genuine "apparently I can make their staffs blow up."

"You know how to do that? Right now?" Kazul asked with mild interest.

I was saved from answering by the arrival of a medium-sized dragon who announced that dinner was served.

We left it there, I really didn't answer that question and Kazul probably knew it. She watched us during dinner, surveying everyone in our little party with a measuring look that gave away nothing. It probably should have bothered me, but I refused to be intimidated. She couldn't roast a fire-witch and anyway Kazul didn't strike me as the sort of person who would kill someone for arguing with her. Besides after everything that had happened the lamb and potatoes really were quite good. Daystar seemed downright twitchy but, the knowledge that everyone was counting on him, probably wasn't comfortable.

After dinner Kazul filled us in on the details of the castle we'd be searching. She sketched as she talked, creating a rough floor plan, pointing out traps and magical objects to avoid. By the third floor of the sixth tower my head was spinning.

After dinner Kazul filled us in on the details of the castle we'd be searching. She sketched as she talked, creating a rough floor plan, pointing out traps and magical objects to avoid. By the third floor of the sixth tower my head was spinning.

"This castle sounds awfully big," I muttered. "How are we supposed to find this King, anyway?"

"You look for him," Kazul said. "I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly where. The only people who knew where the King was were the wizards who went in and put the spell on him, and as far as I know they're all dead."

"As far as you know?" Daystar asked.

"Some of them didn't come out of the castle."

"But you're sure that the ones who did come out are dead?"

"Positive." Kazul smiled nostalgically, licking her lips.

"So what?" I asked "I don't care about the wizards who came out," they wouldn't be a problem. "I'm worried about the ones who might still be in there." It'd be just like the wizards to leave a few minions behind.

"They have to be either dead or enchanted," Kazul said. "Even a wizard can't live seventeen years without food."

"I suppose not." I admitted, and either way they wouldn't be in any condition to fight if they woke up. "All right, then, what does this King look like?"

"You'll know him when you see him. Besides, he's the only other person in there."

"Oh, great." Again with the complete lack of specifics. "We have to hunt through an empty castle for someone we don't even know while a bunch of wizards try to get in and stop us." I demanded.

"It shouldn't be that bad," Kazul said. "The sword and the key should both help considerably."

"The key?" Daystar asked.

"Of course, the key!" Kazul said impatiently. "It can open any door in the castle; that's what it was made for. You could have managed with the sword alone, but it will be much faster with the key as well."

"Are you saying I just picked up the key to the castle by accident?"

"Accidents like that happen all the time in the Caves of Chance," Kazul pointed out dryly. "Where do you think they got their name?"

"How do you know it's the right key?" I asked. "The quozzel said some wizard put it there."

Kazul shrugged. "That's what makes it likely that it's the Key to the Castle. We caught one of the wizards coming out of the caves near the end of the battle, and he'd been inside the castle more than long enough to take the key. But if it will make you more comfortable, I can look at it."

Daystar rummaged in his pocket and handed the key to Kazul. She glanced at it, nodding then did a double take, staring fixedly at the key.

"It's the Key to the Castle, all right, but that wizard's done something to it." She gasped, outraged.

"Wonderful," I muttered "All we need is another wizard to get mixed up in this." If we had to go find him before we could go in the castle I was going to singe someone's eyebrows off.

"He isn't another wizard," Kazul said. "He's the same one who stole the sword in the first place. And he's dead."

"You're sure he's not one of the wizards who didn't come out of the castle?" I asked.

"I ate him myself."

"Oh." Well you couldn't get much more sure than that. "Can you tell what he did?"

Kazul stared at the key, her eyes taking on that almost-glowing look again. Magic slowly built up around the key like a pressure. Suddenly the key moved in the direction of the castle and Daystar dropped it quickly, shaking his fingers in pain. The key fell to the floor, steaming.

Well that didn't look like a nice sort of magic. Nightwitch wandered over and sniffed at the key.

"Nightwitch!" I reached down to grab her with my good arm "Stop that. You'll get enchanted or something."

"I'm a witch's cat I could have avoided it," she said, testily "and probably told you something about what it did."

I reached again and missed. My hand brushed against the key. My hand tingled, a pleasant, familiar sensation. "It feels like fire." I realized

"I know." Daystar said, "It burned my fingers."

"No. I don't mean it's hot" though it was. "It just feels like fire." I didn't quite know how to describe it, it felt like the energy that ran through me when I got angry. It felt like a part of me, something constant, comforting, and familiar. It was like trying to describe how air tasted.

"It shouldn't," Kazul said, sounding interested. "Bring it over here." I handed it over.

"I thought so." Kazul said after a few minutes of staring "It's part of what that wizard did."

"But what's it for?" I asked, as she handed it back to me. The buzz of fire was already starting to dim bu, anything a wizard had done to it couldn't be good.

"I don't know," Kazul admitted. "The fire spell is connected to something inside the castle, but I can't tell what with the barriers around the outside. He may have set a trap with it."

"May I have my key back, please?" Daystar asked. I looked up, surprised. I'd thought it would be logical for me to hold the firey key, since it had almost burned him the last time he held it. But, he held his hand out insistently and I gave it back to him. It had cooled off quite a bit, enough that it didn't burn him when he took it, and the pocket he put it into didn't smoke or anything.

He thanked me and turned back to Kazul.

"Is there anything else we need to know?" he asked. "I mean, we've walked a long way today and we've been in a cave-in, and Shiara has a broken arm, and if we're going to do all these things tomorrow, I would sort of like to get some rest."

"For about a month!" agreed Nightwitch. I looked at her. "What? You're bigger you didn't have wald as far."

Kazul chuckled. "It seems you aren't the only one who would like rest. Very well. Marchak!"

"I carried you half the way" I muttered as the dragon who brought us to dinner showed us out.

My cat was oddly silent. The rooms he showed us to were perfectly sized for humans and looked wonderfully comfortable after a day of traveling.

Nightwitch raced over to the bed and curled up on a pillow. I figured she really was tired, turned off the light and got ready for bed. However the moment I found a comfortable position glowing yellow eyes popped open next to me.

"Gah! What is with you? I'm trying to sleep."

"You can't sleep, there's so much to talk about."

"Why couldn't you have talked earlier? No one would have heard you."

"Kazul might have. Chaos told me that last time she visited Morwen, he and Jasper were arguing about who was older and deserved the sunny spot and she told them that she was older than both of them so they should stop arguing or give her the spot!" She waited a beat for the significance to sink in. "She understands cats!"

"No one understands cats." I muttered "Okay, what did you want to talk about?"

"Daystar is a prince!" She squealed.

"Yeah, kind of a shock." She blinked at me. "Sorry he isn't an adventurer?" I tried again.

"Daystar is a prince." She repeated.

"So?" I asked.

"So, why didn't his mother tell him? So, why would a prince grow up in a cabin at the edge of the Enchanted Forest with only his mother?

Those were actually pretty good questions. I'd been too busy freaking out about my sole friend being royalty to wonder why royalty would be raised so surprisingly normal.

"Maybe they were poor royalty."

"A dragon's princess?" Nightwitch scoffed. "Her husband would have gotten half the kingdom and her hand when he rescued her."

"So they left the kingdom."

"Why would they leave the kingdom? Nightwitch demanded, then rushed on to answer her own question. "Something really bad must have happened like… like an evil usurper who tried to kill the whole royal family to take the crown. Only Daystar's mom escaped and took her baby into hiding. Until the day that he was old enough to know his true identity and take back his throne from the evil tyrant" Nightwitch seemed thrilled by her bloody history.

"Uh-huh" I said, skeptically. "And where do the sword and the dragons and the wizards and waking the Sleeping King fit into all this."

That stumped her for a moment, then she leapt on the pillow excitedly. "Allies! The evil usurper is really powerful so they need allies to take the country back. Only the dragons are fighting a war and the Enchanted Forest king's asleep so he has to fix all that to prove he's worthy."

I looked her, slightly worried because some of that had almost made sense to me.

She nodded "Once this is done Daystar, the lost heir will go back to his country with an army of dragons and free his people from the evil tyrant's power. And then he'll have to re-build a bit to usher in the new age of peace and prosperity."

That was stretching it a bit far. "Getting a bit ahead of yourself aren't you. Let's just try to survive tomorrow, okay." I told her. "And that means getting some sleep so that we don't pass out battling wizards."

She hmphed a bit, but the yellow spots of light went out.

I tried to sleep but Nightwitch's idea kept bouncing around in my head. It was utterly ridiculous of course, except that living in a house in the middle of nowhere did kind of give the impression of a person in hiding. So did not telling your son about his royal heritage. Or about his father at all, I remembered. That could just be because something bad happened to him. After all I couldn't imagine Daystar's mother marrying a guy who abandoned her with a baby.

But that fit right in Nightwitch's story too.

What if Daystar were a lost heir? He could probably take a kingdom back pretty easily with dragon support and people would probably love him. But what about all the rest? It wasn't all fun right? There was paperwork and meetings and negotiations, and semi-evil counselors to deal with. I wanted to help him, but what would I do in that crowd? I didn't know anything about politics and barely even knew how to be regularly polite. I'd probably just get annoyed and set half his new castle on fire within a week.

I turned over, wondering why I was even thinking about such things. It had just been Nightwitch's ramblings.

In spite of the thoughts buzzing through my head I actually managed a good night's sleep. I was jolted out of it by the sound of someone dropping what sounded like half an armory outside my door. Nightwitch jumped about half a foot in the air and landed on my head. After disentangling her claws from my hair I stalked over to the door to take my bad mood out on the ham-handed idiot who'd woken up half the cavern.

The corridor was empty. But dragons were moving this way and that down the corridors down the hall. Apparently the cavern was already up. The whole place hummed with the energy of people who all had something important to do. Last minute preparations for war.

Since no one had told me to do anything and Daystar had the remaining bits of food in his bundle our preparations consisted of hunting up breakfast. Eventually we wandered into a smallish sized cave with kitchen-like cabinets. The little dragon lay sulking in a corner.

"Hello," It grumbled "There's breakfast in the West cave."

"So what are you doing in here? I asked, rummaging through the cabinets any way, since I had no idea where the West cave was or if I'd be able to find it.

"Moraz told me that if I couldn't keep quiet I should go stay out of everyone's way until the fighting started."

"Less work for you." The cabinet yielded a jar of strawberries, and some milk.

"But I want to be useful." The dragon groaned. "No one will let me. Grandmother had finally said I was old enough to fight, but when Inzam gave the assignments, she put me on guard duty, in the back. There aren't going to be any wizards in the back. I'm not going to get to do anything."

"Maybe they'll try to creep up and attack the dragons from behind," I suggested, pouring milk for Nightwitch.

"Yeah right!" the dragon said gloomily. "What are you doing? I bet you got something more interesting."

I'd just popped a strawberry in my mouth. "Watching Daystar's back." I managed.

"Why? He'll be in the castle."

"Just in case."I said ,then nearly choked as the dragon's eyes widened .

"Do you think there'll be trouble." It asked in a horribly excited voice.

"I just want to finish this thing, see what the stupid sword does."

I must not have sounded terribly convincing because the gleam in the dragon's eyes remained bright.

"Well, I want to see it too. It'd probably be a lot more interesting than standing in the back, guarding, but I'd still be out of everyone else's way there." It nodded, at its reasoning, and slithered out of the cave. I followed after it, with the rest of the strawberries, at a much slower pace. I found the dragon several corridors away, arguing with an impatient yellowish dragon that looked female. As I approached the older dragon waved its talons dismissively and hurried off down the hall. The little dragon glared, at the receding back, spun on its heel and stormed off down a side hall.

I didn't have any particular reason for following it. Partially curiosity and a sort of responsibility. I'd set the dragon off on this mad idea, I should see what trouble it got the dragon into. And it was something to think about. Something other than the fact that in a few hours a few hundred angry wizards would be descending on us.

So I munched strawberries as the dragon wound its way through the maze of caverns until it finally found the King of Dragons. She was surrounded by a large crowd of dragons and dwarves and what looked to be witches, giving directions. The little dragon waited until she'd finished, started to move past the group, to survey a different set of troops, before it rushed up to her.

"Grandmother! Grandmother!" It was panting a little. "I know I'm on guard duty but, I was wondering if I could go with Daystar and Shiara instead. I guided them through the Enchanted Forest and"

"No" Kazul said calmly.

"But I could help…"

"No." Kazul repeated "You were given guard duty."

"But guard duty…"

"If you're not old enough to follow orders, you're not old enough to fight."

"Shiara said…"

Kazul gave the little dragon a look that could have frozen lightning. It stopped talking. Kazul turned an only slightly less deadly look on me.

I wanted to smack the little dragon upside the head for dragging me in, but it was too far away. Instead I shrugged. "It asked where I would be during the battle. I told it."

"I could help." The dragon insisted.

"If you want to help, go wake up Daystar and bring him and these other two to the West cave for some breakfast. But once the battle starts I expect you to do as you were told."

The other of the 'other two', wound around my ankles. "Ooh more breakfast?" Nightwitch purred.

The little dragon gave a growl of frustration and stormed out of the room, back down to the human sized rooms and pounded on the door angrily, until Daystar appeared. He looked like he'd just woken up but the sword was belted securely in its sheath. Did he actually sleep with it on? I wondered.

"It's about time" the dragon muttered, testily.

"I'm sorry," Daystar said, "I didn't know you were in a hurry."

The dragon snorted at that and stomped down the hall, muttering darkly. We followed a good distance behind

Daystar looked at me, baffled. I handed him the las strawberry and explained the dragon's foul mood.

The West cave, turned out to be the cave where Kazul had sort of explained the our war plans the day before. Since then someone had managed to get a truly enormous table into the room and load it with food. Daystar and I sat on some convenient stools and Daystar started wolfing down food as quickly as was politely possible. I sampled. I wasn't really hungry but I didn't want to faint in the middle of the battle. Kazul came in just as Daystar was starting to slow down and he suddenly decided he was finished. She let us out through the caves.

It was a lot to not think about the war and the wizards as we wound our way through the army surrounding us. They were all preparing. Dragons were sharpening teeth and claws, elves hurried to catch up with each other, witches cast enchantments and I even saw a lion stretching out its muscles. Magic hummed in the air in a mix of just about every type I'd ever felt, as every creature practiced or readied their spells.

The wizards would be coming soon. And nobody wanted to face them without being absolutely prepared.

Except for us. Even with all the explanations neither Daystar nor I were really knew what we were supposed to be doing or how to prepare for it.

Too late now. I thought as we came within sight of the magic bubbles around the castle.

Kazul stopped and turned to the little dragon. "You'd better go find your place now," she said.

"But I want to-" The little dragon started,

I glanced over at Daystar and found him looking back at me. I was suddenly torn between the desire to roll my eyes at the dragon's antics and to grab his hand and squeeze as hard as I could. We both turned to Kazul. Kazul smiled. "Are you ready?"

No, but I probably never would be I decided. Instead of answering I bent down and picked up my cat. Whatever happened she'd never forgive me if I left her behind for the big battle.

Kazul's smile widened. "When I say 'Now,' draw your sword and run for the castle. Don't look back, and don't stop for anything."

Daystar nodded jerkily . Kazul turned to the crowd of dragons, and everything went absolutely silent.

Magic poured out of the dragons. Metallic cinnamon filled my mouth, I could feel power whispering out of every one of the dragons pulling at the barrier at the front. Kazul and a few of the other dragons toward the front channeled some of it into carefully unknotting the strands of the power, while the rest just kept building and building.

"Now!" Kazul called. The energy suddenly magnified tenfold. There was a snap as if a final string had broken and the first bubble around the castle vanished.

The moment it was gone Daystar yanked the Sword of the Sleeping King out of its sheath and sliced at the last remaining bubble. The reek of wizard magic that I'd barely had time to feel disappeared, leaving behind a shocking magical emptiness. And then the barrier collapsed.

"Run!" Kazul shouted.


	21. Chapter 21

Almost at the end (really two or three chapters to the end). So after this is done I was thinking of doing a drabble series with Shiara and Daystar, filling in some of the conversations I skipped over in the book and doing some of Shiara's adventures as the king of dragon's princess. I wanted to hear if there were parts people particularly wanted to hear about or ideas. Thanks.

**Chapter 21**

She didn't have to tell me twice. I could feel magic building up around us, a familiar irritating buzzing pressure I'd begun to solidly associate with wizards appearing out of nowhere; only much, much stronger. I ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

Next to me Daystar stumbled. I grabbed his arm, yanking him up and shoving him towards the castle as hard as I could. There was a woosh of magic and things began exploding not so far behind us. We suddenly found our feet a lot more quickly and practically flew across the plain to the castle. I managed to slow down before I smacked into the door but it was a near thing. I turned to see Daystar lagging behind, scrounging desperately in his pockets. He slowed down next to me, grinning shakily, and holding up the key by way of explanation.

He moved forward, looking for a lock but, the door swung open the minute Daystar's foot touched the steps. It struck me as a bit too convenient, I grabbed his arm.

"Daystar are you sure..." I began. Something magical and heavy slammed into the wall beneath us spraying stone shrapnel. Suddenly the possible traps behind the suspiciously open door were much less important. We dove through the door together, collided in midair, and landed in an uncomfortable pile.

I turned, looking for Nightwitch the same moment that Daystar jerked up, and the sword whispered uncomfortably close to my ear.

"Hey!" I shouted, he looked down surprised. "Watch what you're doing with that sword!"

"I'm sorry." He stood up, shifted the sword farther away and offered me a hand up. "Is your arm all right?"

I took it. "I think so," It was still throbbing but I'd kept it tucked close to me and my right side had landed on Daystar, which had cushioned it fairly well. "At least, it doesn't hurt any more than it did already. Now, which way do we go?"

"I don't know." Something hit the door hard enough to rattle it in its frame, then there was the sound of the explosion. "I think we should get out of here, though." Daystar observed.

Yeah that sounded like a good idea, though maybe not while waving around the sword that had started the war in the first place.

"Aren't you going to put that stupid sword away first?" I asked

"No," he said. "I'd rather have it in my hand, in case some of the wizards do get into the castle."

I scowled but couldn't really argue. Sure he was painting a huge target on himself but the wizards would probably attack anyone who set foot in the castle. And having a wizard destroying weapon could be helpful.

What would have been more helpful was a map of the stupid castle. Oh sure, Kazul had sketched a little one, but it hadn't included the curvy hallways or the rooms that were inside other rooms. And I was pretty sure that some of the stairways, and moved deliberately in our path. Either that or the architect was truly a madman who thought a staircase leading to a blank wall would be a lovely feature. Maybe both.

Add to all that, the entire castle was full of a haze of dust that just increased every time we opened a door or moved a little too quickly. Nightwitch was sneezing so much she couldn't speak, and just drooped on my shoulder almost grey with the dust.

Daystar seemed to have a general idea where he was going, he moved in the same general direction, however that direction included a lot of dead ends. So I was slightly skeptical when he moved, purposefully into a rather pleasant-looking study.

"This doesn't look right, either," Maybe it was me, but I didn't see wizards trapping people in rooms with nice lighting and large windows. "Do you think-"

"Doesn't look right?" Something growled "Of course it doesn't look right! It's been seventeen years since anybody has dusted in here. And I haven't had any visitors except the mice."

A wooden gargoyle hung up in a corner under what could have been seventy years of dust. It scowled down at us and a spider fell from its ear.

Daystar, of course took that as a request for introductions, "I'm Daystar, and I'm looking for the King of the Enchanted Forest,"

"Oh yeah? What for?" the gargoyle growled.

"I think I'm supposed to return his sword."

"His-Oh, I see. Well, he isn't here. Hasn't been for seventeen years, and boy, am I going to give him an earful when he gets back."

We already knew that and we didn't have time for an earful "Come on, Daystar, we're wasting time," I said.

"Try the great hall, down the corridor to your left," the gargoyle yelled after us. "And send somebody to wipe the dust out of my ears! The things I put up with -"

Daystar and I had looked at each other, nothing else had worked, might as well give it a shot. The great hall was pretty impressive even underneath the grime. The door itself was much larger than any of the ones we'd passed through, carved with gold. But most telling was the wizard's staff pulling at the magic on the ground.

"I think this is the place we've been looking for," Daystar said.

I yanked at the door. "It's locked. Where's the key?"

'Just a minute." I could feel magic, a great deal of it pulsing through the door. There was a rummaging sound and Daystar shouted.

"What is it?" I whirled, expecting to see him defending himself against an enraged wizard, instead Daystar was simply staring at the key. What was he doing? "Come on, hurry up!"

"It's this key," he said, unlocking the door "It feels almost like the sword, except-"

The creak of the door drowned out the rest. In spite of the door the room didn't look bad, the constant dust was nowhere to be seen and the coals in the large brazier were still glowing. Across from the brazier the a man who pretty much had to be the king of the Enchanted Forest lay sleeping on a couch.

Come on, how many random sleeping guys were we going to find in the magically guarded castle? Plus he looked like a king, dressed in silk and velvet, with a beard of wisdom, and a strong, unlined face hinted at good-looking days when he was younger. If he was missing a crown and had a few tears in his fancy clothes, that could be expected from being attacked by wizards and years of enchanted sleep.

Let's just hope the same thing didn't happen to us. I took a deep breath. "That must be him. Come on, Daystar, let's get this over with."

Daystar nodded and stepped into the room. The air inside vibrated with magic, the king was coated in a webbed magic so dense it was almost a solid mass. It looped around and through him, into a wizard's staff lying next the him and then back out. I could vaguely feel other power sources feeding the spell but they were all weak things in comparison to the staff.

"Well, now that we're here, how do we break the spell?"

"Something's wrong," Daystar muttered, staring at the spell intently.

I looked again, harder. He was right. The spell wasn't just Enchanting him it was sustaining him. It would half to, to keep the guy alive for years without food or drink, but that meant suddenly slicing through the spell would probably be more than his body could handle.

"Maybe if you lay the sword on him it'll work," I suggested. That sword would probably still eat away at the wizard's magic, it'd just leech it out more slowly. Hopefully.

Daystar didn't move, he just kept looking between the king and the sword.

"You have to try something or we'll be here all day." I snapped.

"I wouldn't try anything at all, if I were you," said a voice behind us.

We both whirled around and were faced with a doorway was full of wizards.

I should have sensed them coming, I should have been alert for it, but I'd been so focused on the king I hadn't been paying attention.

Daystar leapt for the couch. A wizard, reached out his hand and the king suddenly re-appeared halfway across the room. The sword whumped dully against the couch.

Magic surged out from one of the staffs, knocking into Daystar and freezing him in the middle of a turn. It hit me a second later. I felt it crawl uncomfortably over my skin but otherwise it did nothing. I froze in place, for the show and tried to concentrate on frying those wizards.

It shouldn't have been hard, I just had to get wizards. And they were wizards, the people who'd kidnapped me, tried to experiment on me, hunted me, and were now trying to hurt my friend.

Antorell burst out of the crowd of wizards arm bandaged from the dragon bite, demanding "the boy."

The other wizards sneered contemptuously at his demands but said he could have Daystar, once they had the sword.

I should have been able to stop him then. I have never felt so terrified or so furious as when that evil, unstable wizard strode up to my completely helpless best friend. If I ever had power or needed it should have come then. But it didn't for all my rage, no fire answered me. No power nothing. I almost rushed forward anyway and attacked him with my bare hands.

But before I could, a burst of power flashed out of the sword and knocked the wizard back onto his butt and skidding across the floor.

This wasn't working. My fire-magic wasn't working. Not like that was anything new. I'd hoped it would come through when I needed it but if not, well I'd just have to try something else.

I had Morwen's protection spell, but I'd have to get close to Daystar for that to do any good, and the wizards couldn't see me doing it. Very carefully, I cast Morwen's "don't notice me" blending spell, whispering the words, and trying to let the magic loose as gently as possible. I thought I felt it take and started edging toward Daystar, slowly and carefully.

The wizards didn't notice they were, too busy arguing among themselves about how they were going to kill the King of the Enchanted Forest and take his place and the power that went with it. Not a terrifying idea or anything, but at least it kept them from thinking about me or Daystar.

The moment I thought that conversation turned back to Daystar.

"No, of course not. I have only seen the boy in action," Antorell sneered.

"What the boy has learned matters little." The one who sounded like the leader insisted "The power of the sword passes to the ruler of the castle, and there is nothing he can do about it. He will be easy enough to take care of then."

I could see the other wizards moving, preparing for action. To blazes with carefully, I started moving faster.

"Stop talking and let's get on with it," one of the wizards in the back said.

"An excellent suggestion. That is, if you are quite satisfied, Antorell?" said the leader.

Antorell glared but joined the other wizards with a huff. The leader nodded. "Begin."

I had to stop them, interrupt the ceremony before the killed the king and I had to free Daystar. Hopefully one would accomplish the other. Because otherwise I'd be running into a pack of wizards in a major casting, armed with nothing but basic witch magic.

I wasn't quite sure how the wizards were managing to keep Daystar frozen when he had the great anti-wizard sword. I thought it would have eaten away at their magic at least on the sword arm. My best guess was they had to were continually supplying the spell with power, giving it a boost each time the sword tried to cut through. So, maybe, if I cut the spell off from the source, the sword could get through to the spell and free Daystar. It wasn't the best plan, I grant you but it was all I had.

I grabbed a coal from the brazier as silently as possible, and quickly created a circle around Daystar, trying not to get distracted by the ominous chanting or the power growing steadily in the room. Daystar remained frozen. I stepped inside and raised the enchantment, weaving in the blending spell so that it would cover both of us. I had to touch his arm to spread the spell and Daystar's head jerked around. Movement! Progress!

"Do something before they finish!" he whispered. So he could talk and was aware of what had been going on.

"I've been trying!" I told him. "But it isn't working."

"Oh no." Understanding dawned across his face. "You haven't been polite to anyone since you apologized to Telemain, and you used that up on the last bunch of wizards."

No that couldn't be right, I'd bowed to Kazul hadn't I and all those other dragons? Did it have to be spoken? What was the measure of politeness? Did it even matter? A man was about to die, wizards were about to win a war because I couldn't say nice things to people and mean them.

"Daystar, I'm sorry!" I'm sorry I wasn't a nicer person like you warned me to be, I'm sorry I just doomed your quest to failure, I'm sorry…

"There isn't anything we can do about it now," Daystar interrupted my downward spiraling thoughts. "If you-" The wizards chanting stopped and the power that had been swirling through the air seemed to slow down into confused eddies. The leader bent over the sleeping man on the floor, then straightened with a gasp as the sleeping man dissolved into sparkles and mud.

The other wizards buzzed with confusion. "A simulacrum!" cried someone.

I had no idea what that meant but from Daystar's sigh of relief I took it to mean that the wizard's had not just killed the king of the Enchanted Forest. So the figure there was some sort of magical fake?

The wizards started arguing again and in doing so confirmed my guess.

"If that was a simulacrum," one of them demanded, "where's the King? Who put it there, anyway?"

"Old Zemenar, probably," an older-looking wizard said. "The simulacrum looked like him, and setting up a decoy is just the sort of thing he would do."

They kept arguing about why this Zemenar would do such a thing, getting rather heated. They were distracted now was the time to move if any, convince them to go in the wrong direction, trick them into setting us free, something.

I called to Daystar, hoping he'd know what to say, but he didn't react. The older wizard started giving directions. We had to move soon, but once again Daystar didn't respond when I called his name.

Maybe the enchantment had messed up his hearing I decided, and got right up next to his ear and hissed his name.

"Daystar!"

He jumped a little and turned to me slowly. "Don't do that. They might notice."

I snorted. Right, after all the spells I'd cast and moving around I'd done _that_ was what they'd notice. Not that any of that had done much good. "If you don't want them to notice, you'd better try to notice sooner. That was the third time I called you."

"I'm sorry," he said

"So am I." For everything "What are we going to do?"

"If you could-Nightwitch? he broke off in mid-sentence and I followed his gaze to see a small black streak darted toward the group of wizards. One of them raised his staff. I yelled something and lunged forward. I needn't have bothered Nightwitch dodged and the spell hit the marble floor in a ball of light. She didn't veer away at that though, my suicidal little kitten dashed into the thick of the wizard's feet.

I couldn't see her, just the commotion she was causing among the wizards.

"There it goes!" One shouted

"Stop it!"

"It got away."

"Find it," the leader of the wizards commanded. "You, Grineran, go after it. It may lead you to the one we seek." No, it wouldn't, I thought fiercely, my cat would lead you in a merry chase around the castle and then straight into a dragon army.

And now there were only three wizards left: a short, round one, the one who was giving orders, and Antorell.

Antorell was staring at us. "What about them?" he said suddenly. "They may know something." I looked down, and realized in horror that I'd smudged the circle going to my cat's defense.

The leader wizard nodded "For once, Antorell, you may have made a useful suggestion. Persuading them to explain what they know may be difficult, however."

"I think I can manage it." Antorell said, with a nasty grin

"Really." The leader sounded skeptical. "The girl is a fire-witch, and the boy has the sword, remember."

"Sword or no, he cannot be immune to spells or Silvarex would never have been able to bind him," Antorell pointed out. Not unless I could get the circle back up in time.

"What did you have in mind?" I grabbed the coal and leaned down to fix the smudge, but not fast enough.

"Something like this." Antorell declared grandly and a beam of magic lanced into Daystar.

He tried to evade, I saw Daystar move his arm sluggishly up to block, but again, not fast enough. It hit him mid body and set him writhing and convulsing in spite of the lingering immobility charm. He screamed, a sound of utter pain I don't think he was even aware of making.

"NO!" I shouted, it sounded odd, distorted over the pounding in my ears "Don't you touch him!" Fire didn't come to me I was fire, light and heat, wanting to comfort and protect and avenge. Hungry for it. I was a blaze.

And suddenly so Antorell, fire leapt from my fingers and bloomed all along his robes and staff. He shouted and started slapping at his clothes while his colleagues stared. The fire I had set on Antorell had left a trail of flames in the air, falling gently toward the brazier, making a protective curtain of fire between us and them. Beside me Daystar half-collapsed and I moved to take his weight.

He balanced himself, staring fixedly at the key. Then, slowly, he lifted his left hand and tossed the key into the brazier.

A sheet of fire roared up to the ceiling, then disappeared leaving the brazier glowing white hot. I could feel magic building in the room, shoving the wizards spells aside with sheer force. Purer, older magic.

"Stop them!" the leader of the wizards shouted.

"Move, Daystar!" I yelled trying to drag him behind the brazier, I lost my grip. And instead l tumbled into the shadows alone. My right arm struck the floor and the world went white with pain. I might have blacked out. I don't know.

The next thing I remember was noise, loud but indistinct. I could feel magic zipping through the air around me, not just wizard but other kinds too, and there was fire close by. There was a jolt, and then a door appeared in the air above me. Then a man stepped out. He didn't exactly look like a king, he was dressed in plain clothes, with no beard or with hair to give him the look of an old wise man. But there was a glint of gold in his messy black hair and age in his eyes. Plus, especially from where I was sitting, he was really tall.

He stepped down, flames and fire melted out of existence behind him and the entire room held its breath. I levered myself up to a sitting position to watch the drama better. I'd said I wanted to see how it ends, I thought hazily.

The king was still really tall, even taller than Daystar. I saw Daystar look up to him, but the fire flickered and hid both of their faces. Daystar turned, reached into the fire and pulled out the sword. He held the gleaming blade up, offering it to King of the Enchanted Forest.

"I've come to return your sword, Father," he said.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

What?! The King of the Enchanted Forest was Daystar's father? I'd kind of gotten of figured Nightwitch was right about Daystar being the lost heir of some country but not the Enchanted Forest. It was supposed to be somewhere far away that he had to rescue after this not, well, right away.

My thoughts were interrupted be a loud clang as the King of the Enchanted Forest struck the brazier in front of me with the sword. The metal split in half, melting away into magic, sending embers raining down around me. The King reached down among the embers and picked up the key.

"Thank you." He said, in a tone remarkably similar to Daystar's

"You're welcome," Daystar replied.

They looked similar: dark haired, tall and lanky, but that didn't necessarily mean they were related. A lot of people had all three of those traits and no family connections.

Daystar noticed me. "Oh, I'm sorry," he held out a hand and helped me up with my good arm. "Shiara, this is the King of the Enchanted Forest. Father, this is my friend Shiara. She's a fire-witch."

The King bowed to me. I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do in return. I've never been introduced to a king before or a friend's parents, much less a man who was both at once. "Hey, um, are you really Daystar's father?" I managed.

That wasn't the right thing to say but the King just smiled and nodded. "Of course. Only the Kings of the Enchanted Forest can use the sword." Light glinted off the blade as if in answer and the King smoothly sheathed it in the empty scabbard at his side.

So anyone who'd seen Daystar using the sword knew exactly who he was, terrific. We'd been the only ones who hadn't known,…except…Daystar had been the one who'd just announced the King was his father! _I'd _been the only one who hadn't known.

I whirled around and glared at him. "Why didn't you tell me the King of the Enchanted Forest was your father?" I demanded.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't know it myself until just now," I said.

Right it just came to him in a sudden burst of knowledge "Ha!" I said. He had to have been at least considering the idea for a while "Why didn't you tell me what you suspected then?" I began to say, but before I could finish the first word a ball of fur bounced onto my shoulder.

"Nightwitch!" she was alive! "Where did you come from?" I asked

"I believe she came with them," the king said, nodding toward the doorway.

We turned, "they" were a dozen or-so wizards were being held to the floor by vines or enchantments. The ones that weren't magicked down were being sat on by a small delegation of cats and elves. The elves got up and bowed to the king, then sat down before their prisoners could move. The cats deigned to blink at us.

"I don't think you need to be quite so careful," the King said to the elves. "If you'll let them up one at a time, I'll decide what to do with them!"

The elves nodded, and one of them stood up, with another polite bow to the King. The king interrogated the wizard briefly, but the wizard refused to answer. The king shrugged and waved a hand, with barely a ripple of magic the wizard disappeared. I don't think the king expected any answers but he continued down the line, asking and banishing wizards. It gave the elves a chance to wander around gathering staffs and the cats to give themselves a properly smug wash. They didn't actually look that frazzled, but there was something about cats that required they act like they just coolly saved the whole world. The black and white one closest to us looked especially satisfied with himself, he slowed down his grooming for extra effect when he noticed I was watching. I almost laughed, then I looked harder, and poked Daystar in the back.

"Daystar, where's Morwen?" I asked. "Those are her cats; she has to be around somewhere."

"I don't know," he said, turning to survey the room. "I remember seeing her right before Father showed up, and Telemain was with her." He looked toward the door and blinked. "Shiara, where's Antorell?"

I glanced at the remaining wizards. Sure enough, he wasn't with them "Didn't he disappear already?" I asked

"No, he didn't. I was watching," Daystar said.

Great the obsessed, revenge driven idiot was loose, what harm could he possibly do? Daystar and I looked at each other for an instant, then headed for the door.

An elf gave us a look and almost moved to stop us, but another elf grabbed him and whispered something in his ear. The elf's whole expression changed and he bowed deeply to Daystar. Daystar gulped, nodded awkwardly and hurried past.

We didn't get far, as soon as we got into the hall we stopped in shock to stare at the war zone. There were scorch marks and cracks on the wall, starting to mend before my eyes. A rain of odd-looking plants covered the floor still humming with left over magic. At the end of the hall vicious looking ooze coated a crumpled wizards robe and staff piled on the floor.

In the middle of all of this destruction, was a short, practical figure, determinedly ripping off strips of black cloth.

"Morwen!" I called. Then noticed what she was binding. Telemain lay unconscious nest to her, blood still leaking out of the half-finished black bandaging "What happened? Can I help?"

"What happened was a battle," Morwen said, calmly. "I should think that would be obvious enough."

"But how did-" Telemain stirred and I shut up. I didn't want to be yelling at or aorund the wounded guy. Besides if he was alright he'd tell us anyway.

It took him a moment of blinking, and twitching but he opened his eyes and focused on us.

"What was that?" he slurred.

"That," said Morwen, "was a sword. They are long, pointed, and very sharp. You're lucky it didn't take your head off."

Telemain tried to shake his head , and winced. "A plain sword. No wonder I couldn't block it. I thought it was a spell."

Yeah no reason anyone would bring one of those to a battle, I thought sarcastically. Morwen apparently agreed with me; she snorted. "You may be one of the greatest magical theoreticians in the world, but you don't have a particle of common sense," she said sharply. "Why, in heaven's name, didn't you duck?"

"I did duck!" Telemain said, looking indignant. "He was aiming for my chest, not my shoulder. And if you think I'm going to put up with you and your-"

"You," Morwen said firmly, "are going to put up with me until that shoulder is healed. Which, may I remind you, means that I will have to put up with you for the same period of time. Fortunately, it shouldn't take very long-a few days, at most."

"A few days? Telemain said, insulted now. "Are you mad? It'll take at least a week!"

"Not if I change the herbs twice a day," Morwen snapped. "I should know. It's my field."

"Well, it's my shoulder!"

"I'm so glad you noticed," Morwen said. "Stop fussing, or you'll make things worse and I will have to put up with you for a week."

"If I have to continue lying on this floor-which is cold, hard, and extremely uncomfortable- you'll have to put up with me a lot longer than that!"

Morwen's expression softened for a moment and then became considering "I'll consider the idea carefully. Meanwhile"-she looked us-"Mendanbar, can you provide a room for this stubborn… magician?"

"Easily," said the King, from the doorway behind us. "Which room do you want?"

"The brown one," Morwen said before Telemain could answer. "He'll need a firm bed to support that shoulder."

Father laughed. "Of course." He started to lift his hand, and Daystar actually interrupted. I nearly fainted from the shock. Not really, but it was a very proud moment.

"I would like to ask them something before they go," he said. The king nodded, and Daystar turned to Morwen. "Did you notice what happened to the wizard who was halfway around the brazier when you came in? I didn't see him afterward."

"You mean Antorell? Yes, I thought I saw him," Morwen said. "I'm afraid I don't recall. He wasn't the one I melted, if that's what you're asking"

"Could he have gotten away?" I asked.

Morwen glanced at the King. "If you will allow me, I can find out fairly quickly." The King nodded, and Morwen made an odd rolling sound in the back of her throat. Two of the cats poked their heads around the corner of the door frame.

"Daystar wants to know what's become of one of the wizards," Morwen said to the cats. "The one named Antorell."

The cats looked at each other as if considering, one of them twitched its tail. The other looked back at Morwen. "Rroowww!" it decreed and then both pulled their heads back out of sight.

"He got away," Morwen said, turning back to the King. "Scorn says he ducked down the hall while Telemain and I were busy with the rest of them." Well that was an awful lot for one "Rrow".

"I'd better find him before he causes any more trouble." The king sighed. He looked back at Morwen. "The brown room, I think you said?"

Morwen nodded. The king waved his hand and with another faint ripple of magic Morwen and Telemain disappeared. He raised his hand to make another gesture, then paused to look at us. "I suppose you want to come, too?"

"Yes, we do. That is, if it isn't going to..," Daystar began.

And then the world dissolved into mist. I felt like I'd slipped into a lake, with the subtle currents and pressure. And then just as suddenly and seamlessly we were out again. The mists cleared and we were suddenly in the middle of thickly growing Enchanted Forest surrounded by elves and dragons.

We'd come this way before, I recognized the path, but it hadn't been all coated with moss then, and…"Hey," I asked "where did all the trees come from?"

"They came from the wizards' magic," the king explained. "When Daystar released the magic they had stored in their staffs, it went back into the forest, and things got back to normal in a hurry."

"When Daystar did what?" When? How?

"It was part of the sword and the fire and the brazier," he explained quickly. "I think you were busy ducking."

"Oh," I said. Not my best retort but it was starting to dawn on me what Daystar had done. Releasing the main storage of magic of an entire army of wizards all at once through a magical sword, without dying, that meant that sword was much more powerful than I'd thought. And Daystar had mastered it well enough to do huge workings like that. A bit disconcerting to realize everything my friend had managed while I'd been (oh so uselessly) passed out in pain.

The entire army of dragons and elves broke out into cheers, interupting my humbling train of thought. One of the elves came over and bowed deeply. "It is good to see Your Majesty again," he said, adjusting his clothes in a way that made me feel like he was going to pull out a clipboard at any moment.

"It is good to be here again, Willin," the King replied. "How goes the battle?"

"I believe the dragons are the proper persons to provide that information," the elf said, puffing up with importance with every word. "If Your Majesty will wait here, I will arrange-"

"Mendanbar!" a dragon burst in, interrupting the stream of planning. "So it worked!" she called as she casually bulled her way through the crowd.

"Your Majesty," the elf said, frowning, "if you would prefer a more formal audience-"

"I haven't time for that, Willin," said the King "Besides, I need you inside the castle, not out here. Someone has to look the place over, and arrange dinner for all these people, and see about getting some of the housekeeping staff back."

"Yes, yes, of course! At once, Your Majesty!" Willin bustled away, probably to get a clipboard. He looked absolutely overjoyed to have something to organize.

"How's the battle?" the King asked again as the dragon reached us.

"Quite finished," the dragon said. "There are a few still out herding prisoners together, but that's about all."

"Excellent!" the King said, distractedly, trying to subtly searching the crowd for…something. "If King Kazul is about, I would like to speak with her."

The dragon grinned. "Kazul will be here in a moment." With a suspicious amount of gleeful anticipation.

The king, nodded politely, his thoughts clearly too occupied to notice something fishy.

Suddenly the cheering got much louder, and the dragons drew apart. Kazul burst through the trees, large and green and shining. Dragons are generally pretty impressive most of the time but the King of Dragons knew how to make an entrance.

Daystar started with surprise, "Mother?" he said in a choked voice.

I was trying to remember if any of the falling rocks had knocked him on the head, when a woman slid down from the dragons back. She was tall, too, regal looking. Though it was clear she'd done her part in the battle, jet black hair was escaping from her complicated knot of braids in tufts and a very business-like sword was strapped to her hip.

The King's face lit up "Cimorene!" he shouted and strode forward to embrace her, holding her like she might disappear. The woman, Daystar's mother, Cimorene clung to him just as hard, beaming while tears ran down her face. Her body shook with either tears or laughter or maybe both, I couldn't tell. It was a very emotional moment.

The dragons smiled, but turned away to give them some privacy, so did everyone else. Except Daystar, who stood there gaping like a landed fish.

I poked him in the side, and he turned. "Don't stare," I whispered "it's not polite." I tried to hide a grin at finally being able to say those words to him. Okay, sort of tried to hide it. Daystar stared then blushed and suddenly developed an intense interest in the moss across the clearing. They actually kept it pretty short, for married people who haven't seen each other for, sixteen years or something like that.

The King went over to Kazul to talk about troop movements and Cimorene came over and gave Daystar a hug.

"Well done, Daystar." She murmured

"Thank you, Mother," he said, leaning against her.

Suddenly I was the one who felt like they were intruding. This was a family deal, I should go…do…something else. But, as soon as I moved Daystar remembered I was there.

"Oh, and this is my friend Shiara." He said "She's a fire-witch."

"I can tell that by looking at her." Cimorene said, grinning like it was an inside joke. "You'll stay with us for a few days, won't you?"

I nodded. It was still weird, getting asked by a queen to stay at a castle but, I didn't have anywhere else to go.

"Good," she said, and sounded like she meant it. "Now, if you will excuse me, there are still a few things I have to attend to."

"Mother," Daystar called, and she turned. "That wizard, Antorell. He was in the castle, but he got away. I thought you should know."

"He did not get away!" said a familiar voice behind me. "I caught him myself. Do you want him for anything, or can I eat him?"

We all turned. The little dragon was sitting on the other side of the bridge across the castle's moat, holding on a battered, miserable Antorell by an arm.

"Well?" it said, looking very pleased with itself. "Can I eat him?"

Daystar looked to his mother, who shook her head, though I thought I saw a smile threatening the corners.

'I don't think you should eat him," Daystar told the dragon. "The King talked to all the other wizards, and he'll probably want to talk to this one, too."

"Well, I want him back when the King gets finished with him," the little dragon said. "I caught him, and I'm going to eat him."

I snorted "He'll probably give you a stomachache."

"No he won't, he doesn't have his staff." The dragon protested.

"Doesn't matter, he's just that poisonous on his own. Besides, look at him, do you even know where that's been."

"His hand wasn't poisonous." It shot back.

"What about all the gunk on him?" I returned.

The dragon seemed to consider that and as it did, Antorell suddenly twisted away, gesturing with his left hand. The dragon shrieked in pain and let go of him, its scales turning vaguely pink in distress. Antorell darted toward the bridge, waving his hands and shouting. There was a clap of rancid power, and something large and ugly appeared in front of us with poisonous purple scales, huge orange claws and silver-green teeth. Antorell shouted again, pointing at Daystar's mother. The Thing nodded, and one arm reached for her.

Cimorene started to go for her sword, but before she could draw Daytar reached into the air and seemed to pull at nothing. There was a wave of magic that sucked up first the clawed thing and then Antorell. Daystar turned and made another gesture toward the dragon. It squeeked in surprise then relaxed, its scales suddenly a perfect healthy green. And just like that all out problems were gone.

"That was a bit extreme, Daystar" Cimorene said, though she sounded almost, proud.

What was _that?_ "Daystar, what on earth did you… I mean, how did you…" I couldn't even phrase the question. How did anyone suddenly heal a dragon and disappear a wizard? And how could Daystar? He didn't have any magic except the sword and he hadn't even been holding that!

"I don't know," he said, almost as shocked as I was. "I'm not even sure what I did."

"What happened?" the little dragon asked, sulkily "Is that wizard dead?"

"No, but he probably wishes he were," Cimorene said, confidently . "Demons do not like surprise visitors."

"Oh, is that what Daystar did with him?" the King asked, coming up behind Daystar. "I wondered."

Kazul followed him, "Where have you been?" she asked the little dragon wearily.

"I've been catching wizards!" the little dragon said, puffing its chest out. "Well, one of them, anyway. He threw dragonsbane at me again and called a demon and Daystar got rid of both of them. I didn't even get to eat him," the dragon finished sadly.

"I see," Kazul said, shaking her head. "I think you'd better spend the rest of the day with me. It may, just possibly, keep you out of trouble."

She saw, terrific. I was still completely lost. "I don't understand? I burst out. "How could Antorell do any magic without his staff? And how could Daystar do any magic at all? And what did Antorell have to do with the sword and everything?"

The King smiled at his wife, then looked at Shiara and me. "As long as things seem to be quiet out here, why don't we go inside? That way, we can be comfortable while I explain."

Daystar and I traded glances then nodded. As long as someone was actually going to explain things, I thought. The King waved his hand, and the Enchanted Forest dissolved into mist around us.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

We appeared in one of the dusty rooms inside the castle. The king waved his hand, and suddenly the dust disappeared, revealing a neat, cozy little library. There were a number of comfortable looking chairs we settled into while Cimorene muttered that instant cleaning being no excuse for letting things get into such a state. He looked over at us then smiled at her.

"I believe this should begin with you, Cimorene," he said.

She slanted him a look, then seemed to think about it and nodded.

Apparently, she'd been a princess from a pretty large kingdom. But she'd considered etiquette and sewing boring and run off to volunteer as Kazul's princess.

Kazul had been an ordinary dragon at the time, but then the wizards had helped poison the old King of the Dragons, and Kazul had won rock moving contest to become king.

The wizards had gotten annoyed that Kazul had banned the murderous idiots from dragon territory. So they'd kidnapped her and tried to make it look like the dragons were attacking the Enchanted Forest. Only instead of starting a war over burned patches of forest Daystar's father had gone to talk to the dragons and met Daystar's mother. So the king and the princess went off and rescued the dragon. They fell in love in the process and got married with Kazul acting as the matron-of-honor.

Everything was peachy until the wizards showed up again.

"They'd figured out that the sword was the main thing keeping them from absorbing magic in the Enchanted Forest," the king said, "and they thought that if they got rid of it, they could soak up the whole forest and use all that extra magic to wipe out the dragons. They didn't realize, at first, that even without the sword I could use the magic of the forest against them."

"Well, then what good was the stupid sword, anyway?" I demanded, "If you didn't need it to stop the wizards-

"I did need it," he replied. "I can deal with one or two wizards at a time, but not the whole Society of Wizards at once. And I can't be everywhere. The sword is connected directly to the magic of the Enchanted Forest, so it protects the whole forest and not just the area where it happens to be. If you want the technical details, ask Telemain. He helped me set it up."

I did want to know more about what the stupid sword actually did, but asking Telemain for technical details would probably lead to an hour long speech in which I understood maybe one word in five. Maybe if I got a translator… I shook my head and paid attention to the story.

So someone had to get the sword back. But only someone in the royal family could hold the thing for more than a few seconds when it was outside the Enchanted Forest. The king had to stay in the castle to fend off the wizards, so the queen (pregnant with Daystar) had gone off with Morwen and Telemain stolen the sword soon as they left all the wizards attacked the castle. Kazul, who'd originally been part of the special sword retrieval group, found out and rounded up dragon reinforcements. They'd broken through to the castle, but not before the wizards had enchanted the King and put up their big bubble spell. Cimorene got back with the sword, but it turned out that while she could hold the sword only rightful heirs could wield it.

Meaning only the unborn baby, Daystar, had a chance of using it, when he was old enough to hold it. And even then he had to wander around the Enchanted Forest somehow get recognized by the earth, air, and water of the place and then by the fire of the sword itself. As if that wasn't enough, there were still plenty of wizards hanging around who wanted the entire family just out of the way.

The king was protected by the dragons shield around the castle Cimorene had gone into hiding to protect her and her son. She'd had to leave the sword in the Enchanted Forest but keep herself out of it because that's where all the wizard's spells were hunting for her.

Antorell had been the one person obsessed enough to go searching outside the Forest. Apparently he was the son of the Zemnar guy the wizards had mentioned. Zemenar had been behind everything from plotting the poisoning of the first dragon king to personally imprisoning the King in the enchanted fire room. He'd put Antorell in charge of guarding the sword and when Cimorene had stolen it Antorel had gone to warn his father, only to find out that he was too late. The wizards attack had been repelled and Zemenar had been eaten by dragons. That had sort of snapped him. He'd decided that Cimorene taking the sword had somehow rallied the castles defenses and blamed her for everything. As a result he'd become the none-to-bright revenge-driven madman we all know and had tried to kill her a time or two.

So when he'd shown up at the door, she'd decided it was time to send Daystar out into the world with the sword. She didn't tell him anything because apparently the wizard's spells searching for the young prince or the Sword of the Sleeping King wouldn't pick up on Daystar if he didn't know who he was or what he was carrying.

"I'm afraid it was rather hard on you, Daystar," she said. "But we couldn't think of anything else that had a chance of working."

"Well, I think we were lucky," I muttered. Sure she'd stuffed Daystar's head full of adventure histories and spells and manners and stuff but how did anyone know that he wouldn't use the wrong spells at the wrong time, or get side tracked rescuing princesses? There were a hundred ways it could have gone wrong.

The King smiled. "Kings of the Enchanted Forest are supposed to be lucky."

I blinked. Not what I was expecting from the guy who'd gotten magically locked away for the last seventeen years. "You weren't very lucky, were you? What did those wizards do to you, anyway?"

The King shook his head. "Zemenar and about ten others broke into the castle during the battle. I got a couple of them, but without the sword I was outnumbered a little too badly. They wanted to kill me, but they couldn't do it inside the castle without the sword, and they couldn't take me outside the castle because of the dragons. So Zemenar decided to put me in storage, in a manner of speaking, while he went back for the sword. The simulacrum was a decoy, in case someone managed to get into the castle while he was gone."

"But where were you for seventeen years?" I asked.

"There are… places that can be reached through the proper doors, places that can't be gotten into or out of except through such a door. Some of them are very large; some aren't. Zemenar found one that suited him and put me in it, then hid the door. Without the sword or the key, I couldn't get out until someone put the door back up." His smiled crookedly. "I'm lucky that one doesn't need to eat in those places, or I wouldn't have lasted seventeen years."

"But I still don't understand about Antorell." I insisted "He acted as if he wanted to do something to Daystar a lot more than he wanted the sword."

"Antorell never knew what the sword was," Cimorene said "Zemenar, the Head Wizard, was the only one who knew the whole story, and after the way Antorell failed to guard the sword, the new Head Wizard wouldn't tell him anything."

"Ha! Served him right." I hesitated for a moment "But what did Daystar do to Antorell, anyway? And how? He never did anything like it before."

"He couldn't do it before," the King said. "The Kings of the Enchanted Forest can use the magic of the forest directly, but only after the sword has acknowledged them. Daystar wasn't acknowledged until he put the sword into the fire."

"Oh." That sword of made sense. I wasn't exactly sure how a sword could acknowledge someone. Was it somewhat alive or was just energy responding like the flames I summoned? Though come to think of it those could be temperamental enough to count as living things, with stubborn minds of their own. Had they not acknowledged me somehow? Was that my problem?

"Mother, do you know anything about fire-witches' magic?" Daystar, asked

"Yes, of course," she said. "Why do you want to know?"

"Could you teach Shiara how to do things?" I said. "That's why she came to the Enchanted Forest in the first place. She helped me a lot, and I think she ought to have some sort of reward."

"I didn't do very much," I really hadn't, besides I didn't want a reward, I didn't want some sort of title or chest full of gold. Or even the everlasting gratitude of the royal family. I didn't belong here. I tried to turn the conversation back to Daystar. "You kept me from staying a statue, and I think you saved my life when the roof of the Caves of Chance fell in. You're the one who deserves a reward."

Daystar looked ready to argue but his mother broke in before he could.

"I think that it is time you told us what you have been doing these past few days. I have a general idea, but I would like a few more details, and Mendanbar hasn't heard anything about it yet."

So that was the King's name.

I let Daystar do most of the talking, he'd done it three or four times now. Besides, it was a family thing. I did fill in a few details when Daystar tried to gloss over his heroics, or skipped important details. He ended with an explanation of what we'd figured out about my conditional magic. Both of them looked surprised by the idea, and then King Mendanbar began to smile.

"A polite fire-witch," he said thoughtfully. "Very unusual."

For a reason! "I don't want to have to be polite to people!" I muttered. I didn't want to _have_ to smile and say nice things to people, even if they were stupid or mean, or wouldn't shout up about what fire-witches should be able to do. I couldn't. It was so stupid and confining and fake. And I'd just get angry with people anyway and it'd be one more thing that I failed at.

"Why not?" I asked. "You're getting much better at it."

"Especially not to you!" Mr. Being-polite-comes-to-me-as-naturally-as-breathing .

"I can understand that," the king. "It's his fault, after all."

"What?" Daystar and I said together.

"It's Daystar's fault that you have to be polite," he repeated. "His and the sword's. One of the things the sword does besides control wizards is unlock people's talents, particularly magical talents. When you met Daystar, both of you touched the sword at the same time. You wanted to use your magic and Daystar wanted you to be more polite. I think the sword did the best it could, under the circumstances."

"I knew it!" I yelled, and glared at Daystar "I said it was that stupid sword's FAULT!"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know. But at least you can use your magic now, sometimes. Isn't that better than not being able to use it at all?"

"No! It's worse!" I cried. I'd know exactly what I would have to do but I wouldn't be able to do it. "I have to go home and be NICE to people, and it probably won't work most of the time, because I have to mean it, and how can I mean it if I'm always thinking about being able to do magic?" Or how I couldn't. Or how these were the people who'd always looked at me funny, and nattered about all the things that fire-witches should be able to do, and would probably start coming up with all the tales they'd heard about polite fire-witches now, because there was never anything else to talk about.

"And it's BORING at home, and people will still keep expecting me to do things I can't do. I don't even know anyone who could teach me about magic even if I could get it to work all the time. I'll never learn anything!"

And I'd just go back to being the angry, uncontrollable wreck that would have to move to the far side of town to avoid being a danger to everyone. And in spite of everything I'd told myself, about not wasting water on useless tears I could feel trails of warmth sliding down my face.

"That is quite enough of that," Cimorene said decisively

"You don't know what it's like! It's horrible." Especially after you'd had a little bit of a relief for a while, been able to do something worthwhile, hadn't been the freak, just for a little while.

"On the contrary, I know quite well what its like," she told me and something in her eyes told me she meant it. "And the solution is obvious. In fact, it's the same one I used."

"What?" I looked up, blinking tears away. "What do you mean?"

"You can become Kazul's princess," she said.

I stared at her. Me and princess in the same sentence do not work together. But she just kept on going, listing off reasonable points. "She doesn't have one at the moment. It would have a great many advantages on both sides. You will learn considerably more about magic, dragons, and the Enchanted Forest than you _would _anywhere else, and Kazul will get a princess who can't be accidentally roasted if one of the other dragons gets out of hand.

And you'll be living nearby, which will give Daystar and Mendanbar a chance to figure out how to reverse that ridiculous politeness spell."

"But I'm not a princess!" I insisted.

"If Kazul says you are a princess, then you are a princess,"Cimorene said firmly. "No one is going to argue with the King of the Dragons. Besides, it will be excellent experience for you later."

"But are you sure Kazul would be willing to do it?" I asked, pretty sure, the King of Dragons would want something better than a bad-tempered non-royal.

"Kazul will have no objection whatsoever to training the next queen of the Enchanted Forest," Cimorene said calmly. "You don't need to worry about that."

How was _I _going to be queen of anything? Daystar's mouth snapped closed beside me and I turned to see him staring at the floor, blushing bright red.

"Oh," I said in a small voice.

The king burst out laughing

"Cimorene, you're going a little fast," he said, chuckling. "If Shiara wants to go live with Kazul, I'm sure we can make the arrangements, but there's no reason to hurry. She can stay here until she decides. There's plenty of room." I sent him a grateful look and he steered the conversation to less embarrassing matters.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go back outside. Kazul was going to talk to Willin about a feast, and I haven't had a good meal in seventeen years. As a matter of fact, I haven't had any meals in seventeen years."

Cimorene said she didn't mind, so the King transported us all outside again, where a long table had been filled with food. The entire army was bustling around it trying to snatch a bite to eat.

They noticed the entry of the king and queen and there was a general roar of approval as they took seats at the head of the table. Kazul saluted them from the other end. Daystar nudged me and why tried to quietly grab seats in the middle of the table, but as soon as we sat down dragons and dwarves and elves and witches came swarming over wanting to hear where the sword had been and what we'd done, even though. And as soon as we got most of the way through the tale another group would wander over and we'd have to start all over again.

"I'm getting tired of this," I whispered to Daystar while some dwarves attempted to change seats with a rather large dragon. "Let's go someplace else for a while, and let them tell each other about the stupid wizards." They probably knew more of the whole story than we did, anyway.

"I'm tired of it, too," Daystar whispered back "but I don't think we should leave"

"You don't? No, of course you don't. How very irksome" said a squeaky voice from underneath the table.

We both looked down at a thin line of gold in the shadows

"Suz!" Daystar exclaimed "Where did you come from?"

"The forest, of course." The lizard raced up the leg of the table toward us, then stopped and looked about nervously. "Is that-that kitten anywhere close by?"

"No, she's inside," probably begging fish off of the kitchen staff, "I don't think she likes the crowd. Why?"

The lizard gave me a look. "If you'd ever been jumped on by something four times as big as you are, and been rolled around until you were dizzy, not to mention bruised, you wouldn't have to ask." He balanced on his tail and peered over the edge of a bowl of nuts.

"Would you like something to eat?" Daystar asked, politely.

"I believe I would," Suz said. He made a very fast bouncing motion, rocking the bowl, and expertly grabbing one of the flying nuts. "What are you going to do now that the wizards are gone?"

"They aren't all gone," I said. "I think a few of them were on our side, and some of the others actually got away."

"They did?" Suz pondered it for a moment then shrugged. "I suppose they did. How very annoying. But what are you going to do?" He stood there munching on a nut, looking back and forth between us interestedly.

It suddenly occurred to me that as much as I hated the idea of going back home to people telling me what a fire-witch should do, I hated the idea of leaving here more. Not the Enchanted Forest, exactly, but new places, where talking lizards were normal, and elves elbowed dragons for food, and where you were never quite sure what was going on. I didn't want to leave this place where I could start over a little and actually make friends, and maybe get this stupid spell off me. "I'm going to be Kazul's princess," I decided.

Suz actually fell over backwards "Oh my gracious goodness my oh!" he squeaked. "However did that happen?"

"Mother suggested it," he explained to Suz, then turned back to me. "But I thought you hadn't made up your mind yet."

"I just decided," I told him. "Home is boring, and this way I can learn things and maybe even stop having to be polite to get my magic to work." Not exactly the whole truth, but I wasn't going to go around being mushy about it.

"I'm glad you're going to stay," Daystar said.

"You are?" Suz asked skeptically, then peered up at him intently. "Why, you really are! How amazing."

The table around us turned at the little lizard's squeaks and Daystar looked quite taken aback but his parents and Kazul chose that moment to stand, and the entire room focused on them.

The king started, thanking them for coming to his aid and fighting off the wizards. Then he formally introduced Cimorene and Daystar, both of whom were met with thunderous applause.

After that, Kazul gave a short reply about how the dragons were pleased to be of assistance, and everyone sat down and got back to eating.

I lasted through two more repetitions of the story before I gave up on Daystar and headed off to find Nightwitch and talk to the little dragon. Nightwitch, was where I'd expected to find her, curled up in the kitchen with a belly full of fish making cute purring noises. The little dragon wasn't much farther away, busily chewing at what looked like half an entire roast, with a small hoard of food spread in front of it. It nodded at me in greeting and kept chewing.

"What did you do steal half a table's worth of food?" I asked

"Mmph." It swallowed. "It was too crowded in there."

"True." I sat down next to it.

"So what happened before I captured the wizard it asked?"

I recounted the story yet again, it interrupted in all the wrong places, but at least I only had to tell it once.

In return I pumped it for information about dragon's princesses. It wasn't really sure what they even did: cooking, cleaning, and attracting princes and knights for the dragon to defeat, mostly. According to everything it had heard, the last one was the most important trait. Which was probably going to be a problem for me. And the King of Dragons didn't normally have a princess. It just kept getting better and better. Still, I did manage to get quite a bit of information about dragon life before people started wandering out of the banquet and I went off to find Kazul.

She was one of the last ones into the castle, everyone seemed to want to talk to at least one of the royals. I'd started to go outside to search for her, in case the worrying that dragons had a separate building or something and almost ran into her.

To my credit, I managed to turn my stumble backwards into somewhat of a bow. " Your Majesty."

"Have you decided whether you're going to be my new princess then?" I looked up at her. "Cimorene already told me."

"I wanted to ask you first , see if you were alright with the idea."

She smiled. "I was going to offer you a position anyway, Cimorene has a knack for choosing people."

"I didn't think the King of Dragons would need a princess to cook and clean."

"I have others who can do that. But there are not that many individuals who will tell me to my face that an idea is 'just stupid'. I think I'd prefer it said with a little more tact when around others, however, having one person who will always tell you the truth is a valuable asset to a ruler."

I can do that, "I'm not a princess though, I'm not going to be bringing in any knights to rescue me."

Kazul cocked her head to the side. "You say that as if it's a bad thing. You must have been talking to one of the younger dragons, they think it proves strength. I find them a nuisance, the less the better."

"So what would I be doing, besides telling you if something's stupid?"

"Some cooking, if you're good at it, I've had quite enough inedible meals from proncess who don't know how to hold a pan. More cleaning, organizing really, books, paperwork, some treasure, taking notes, running messages." She looked at me, considering "Are you dragon-fire proof."

"I'm fire-proof."

"Have you tested it with dragon-fire?"

I considered. The little dragon had done plenty of sneezing but I'd always ducked out of the way. Hey. I'd only had one set of clothes and they weren't fire-proof. And I _really_ didn't want to wander around the Enchanted Forest naked. "No."

"We should test that, before one of the other dragons roasts you in a fit of temper"

And so it was decided that I would be Kazul's princess. There were a few more details to iron out: how I was going to tell my family, secrets I'd hace to swear never to tell, and when I'd get days off. She also wanted to test the fireproof thing, though not that night, since she was about overheating after a day full of battle.

We found a section of fairly bare stone outside the castle and I managed to bully one of the elves into finding me some extra clothes that no one would cared about. Kazul insisted I only stick my hand in first, but when that didn't do anything she aimed directly at me, working up to full blast.

I didn't get a mark on me. It didn't feel that different from normal fire, really hot normal fire.

"That brings back memories" I threw my tunic on over the charred remains of the dress and turned to see Cimorene, watching us with a tray of breakfast food. "Back when I was a princess I discovered a very handy fire-proofing spell and asked Kazul to test it the same way."

"Did it fire-proof your clothes too?" I asked, taking a hunk of fresh cheese.

Cimorene smiled, "Why yes, I think I still have a copy around somewhere and maybe some of the powdered hens teeth."

"I wonder if it would work for other stuff too, like letters and tables so I wouldn't have to worry about burning them all the time."

Kazul looked interested. " I wouldn't mind a fire-proofed library. Though that would take an awful lot of powdered hen's teeth." She selected a roll and nibbled at it surprisingly delicately.

"You do realize, Cimorene, I'm still holding you to your promise to train your replacement"

"I already did that once, remember"

"You didn't finish. Any princess you'd finished training wouldn't get herself turned into a stone in the Caves of Chance."

"Valisaia was just trying to help."

"Which is good, I like princesses with initiative, however they need to be properly trained to get through their adventures, otherwise I'm left princess-less again."

"I'm right here you know." I muttered. They ignored me.

"You'll bring her to the Enchanted Forest then," Ciroreme said, barely suppressing a smile, "I'm going to be far too busy on clean-up here to make it all the way out to the Mountains of Morning."

Kazul grinned, "I can probably spare her about once a week, or so. I'm sure we've got an old magic carpet lying about in one of the treasure caves."

For some reason this caused Cimorene to burst out laughing.

I sighed "Well I wanted to get this stupid politeness spell off me anyway."


	24. Chapter 24

**Epilogue**

With my future being settled for me I mostly tried to keep out of the way as everyone else rushed around trying to keep an army of people fed and cared for and somewhat organized.

Morwen had me talk to her fire-witch friend, Brendel and some of his family. They cleared up some of my questions but left before they could really teach me anything, because they had to deal with a fire elemental that had gone rogue from all the magic released. Morwen had taught me a few new spells and given me another bundle of magical supplies she insisted I would need for my journeys in the Mountains of Morning. But she was also busy, healing and making sure that certain patients didn't use their arms and actually rested rather than looking at the latest spell book.

She was so insistent that Telemain couldn't disturb his shoulder that they stayed even after the bulk of the army had gone home.

"It's simply ridiculous," Telemain grumbled at breakfast on the third morning after the battle. "I am quite capable of traveling with my arm in a sling."

"Yes, and the first time you ran across a slowstone or a pool of transformation water you'd take your arm out of the sling and start tinkering with it," Morwen said. "Which would not be good for that shoulder."

Telemain glared at her. "I disagree."

"Disagree all you like, but you're not leaving the castle for another two days," Morwen said, passing a basket of muffins down the table.

"Two days!"

Cimorene raised an eyebrow. "Is our hospitality unwelcome?"

"No, of course not, but… Cimorene, I have a tremendous amount to do if I'm to be ready for the wedding in time."

I almost choked on the muffin I'd been eating.

"Wedding?" Mendanbar asked.

Morwen smiled. "Telemain and I are getting married."

There was a general chorus of "Whats?" and the cat's chimed in with yowls that probably meant the same thing.

"Yes, married," Morwen told them. "And it has nothing to do with you, so you may as well be quiet and accept it."

The cats muttered to themselves, Morwen frowned at them, and they all got up and took their muttering over to a corner of the room.

"They'll get used to the idea." Morwen declared.

"Um, congratulations to both of you," Daystar said.

"Cimorene, did you know about this?" The King asked quietly.

"Not exactly," she said with a smile.

"I see." Mendanbar shook his head. "Well, congratulations."

"Thank you," Telemain said. He started to reach for a plate of sausages with his bad arm, and Morwen stopped him.

It took another two days before Morwen announced that Telemain's arm was well enough for him to travel. She promised to invite everyone to the wedding, even the said she'd hold her to that.

Kazul had remained behind, to help the King and Queen of the Enchanted Forest settle back in, before we went and joined the rest of the dragons in the Mountains of Morning. Eventually, though, we couldn't drag our feet anymore.

In addition to advice Cimorene loaded me up with bundles of supplies she insisted I'd need if I was living with the King of Dragons. Willin had attempted to organize a group to handle the baggage so "the princess" could say a proper farewell. I'd glared at him and told him that they were my bags and that I'd handle them myself.

Mendanbar had smiled and simply advised that if I was going to continue my habit of glaring with the dragons then I'd have to glare politely. Then they both went to talk to Kazul, leaving Daystar and I to say good-bye.

I didn't really want to, it made everything seem so final and definite. It occurred to me that after everything I talked about with the little dragon and Cimorene and Kazul I really had no clue what I was doing.

"I'm beginning to wonder whether I really want to do this or not," I told Daystar. "Does he really expect me to practice glaring at people?"

"No, just at dragons," he said. "If he wanted you to glare at everyone, he would have said so."

"Well, I think it's-Nightwitch!" I snatched her off the bag she'd been energetically trying to paw open.

"What? It smelled good" She protested "I think Telemain snuck catnip into that one."

I gave her a little shake and cupped her firmly in one arm, far away from the bag.

"Where did you get all of this, anyway?" Daystar asked

I told him about Morwen and Cimorene insisting I'd need things.

"I don't even know what's in all of them yet." I admitted.

Daystar nodded, but didn't say anything else, he actually looked kind of at a loss.

"What's the matter with you?" I asked

He shrugged "I was just wishing you were going to be living a little closer to the castle."

Didn't he realize yet? I gave him a look. "I don't see why. I'm going to have to come here a lot anyway, at least until you get that stupid politeness spell off of me so I can use my fire magic. So what difference does it make?" I would be practically living there anway, and it's not like he would be put out "_I'm_ the one who has to do all the traveling back and forth." I saw a look of hope creeping over his face and turned away to keep from grinning back. "I think they're ready to go. Come on, Daystar."

I grabbed one of my bundles and left the others for him to pick up. I had a broken arm, after all. Besides if I was going to have to come back and visit him all the time to get lessons from his mom, and try to get his dad to remove this spell, and make sure he didn't go insane from new found princehood, the least he could do was help me with my bags when I left. After all that's what friends did. I glanced back and saw Daystar hurrying to catch up with me.

It sounded like a pretty good deal to me.


End file.
